


Deleted Scenes:  Aftermath

by TigerLilyNoh



Series: Job & Family [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 22:34:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 60,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9926231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerLilyNoh/pseuds/TigerLilyNoh
Summary: I decided to make a separate work for collecting deleted scenes that take place after the end of Job & Family (work 1 in this series).  Hopefully this will prevent spoilers for people who might be reading the other deleted scenes while going through the main story.  Also, this organizational structure will at least save me a little sanity.I think this goes without saying:  Major spoilers if you haven't finished Job & Family.  This is a collection of supplemental ficlets that presumes you've already read J&F.





	1. Prompt:  Sam & Ruby reuniting with Kaylee

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous asked:  
> Can I request a post-final chapter deleted scene of Sam and Ruby's reuniting with baby Kaylee
> 
> (This was originally posted in Deleted Scenes: Endverse &, before I split the deleted scenes into two categories)

It had taken almost four hours to get back to the bunker after Lilith was killed.  The process of getting the survivors healed was slowed by having to find angels of sufficient power capable of triaging the complex injuries.  Some of the injuries that had been inflicted by the Knights were entirely unable to be healed through magical means, creating an wholly different triage procedure.  Then there was the near political crisis of trying to extract themselves & an army of Hell from not only a semi-public location on Earth, but also the site of an Archangel’s murder.  And throughout the long, often physically painful process, all Sam wanted to do was see his daughter.

 

He thought that having time to internalize the fact that he would get to see her again would make the moment less overwhelming, but he was wrong.  When he saw his daughter for the first time since being taken prisoner he was overcome.  He couldn’t think of what to say- not that he could’ve spoken through the tightness in his throat.  It was all he could do to stop himself from tearing up at the sight of her.  Bobby handed off the infant without even delaying the reunion to ask how he was doing.  

Sam carefully took Kaylee in his arms and just held her, treasuring every aspect of the moment.  Her dark brown eyes looked up at him with an innocence that he no longer feared for.  He gently brushed some of her soft hair back away from her face then marveled at her tiny eyelashes & dimples.  The weight & warmth in his arms.  The smell of her and the sound of her little breaths & huffs.  

It was more real now.  He was with Ruby & their little girl again.  They were safe- not just within the confines of the bunker or while staying one step ahead of countless enemies.  There was no more threat hanging over them, ready to drop any moment.  They could just live their lives.

Ruby circled around to be in front of him so that she could look at Kaylee too.  She smiled as she caressed the infant’s arm, then tickled her little stomach.  Kaylee wriggled and yawned, before gripping Sam’s shirt.

“Hey starlight, look who I found.”  Ruby said softly.  

Sam leaned forward to kiss the top of Ruby’s head.  When his lips were in her hair he breathed in her scent.  His chest felt tight and his eyes clenched.  He must’ve started crying because Ruby wrapped her arms around him and whispered reassurance.  

After a few minutes Kaylee shifted, reaching up at Sam’s face.  Her movements made him have to reposition her slightly, which was difficult with his right arm wrapped in a clumsy temporary bandage.  Ruby saw that he was struggling and helped him.  Ruby let one arm linger, supporting Kaylee, while the other held Sam, so that they were holding their daughter together.  Ruby shifted up onto her toes to place a kiss on his cheek, then she looked him in the eyes.

“I know how much you need this.”  Her voice was delicate & apologetic.  “I hate to be the killjoy, but you need to get your arm fixed.”

“It can wait a little while longer.”

“We have all the time in the world now and you need to take care of yourself.”  She reminded him.  “I can even bring her with me and we can wait in the hospital waiting area like normal people.  I think someone earned some flowers & a balloon with a sick bear on-”

Sam kissed her, silencing the whimsical absurdity.  He nibbled slightly on her lower lip, eliciting an almost imperceptible groan.  

“We could stay-”  He started, but was interrupted by Ruby’s skeptical glance.

“It’ll take no time at all, and when you wake up we’ll be there waiting for you.”

“I'm… I’m not this lucky.”  He couldn’t bring himself to voice such an irrational fear.  Part of him was scared that this was too good to be true.  His eyes evaded hers, but she leaned to the side, inserting herself into his field of view.  She looked up at him with a comforting sincerity.

“Every time you wake up, I’ll be there waiting for you.”

* * *

After his surgery, Sam didn’t wake up in some hospital bed.  He’d been brought to one of the cabins where the coven was staying.  He awoke in a soft warm bed to the sound of birds chirping outside.  There was a kettle of tea, a mug, & a half-read book on one of the nightstands.  His right arm was neatly bandaged, cushioned among two down pillows.  He was laying on his back in the center of a queen bed with Ruby snuggled up against his left side, her head resting on his shoulder & chest.  In the center of his chest, Kaylee slept peacefully, tiny chest rising & falling in time with his own.  He watched his daughter sleep for some unknown time, until fatigue & pure contentment overtook him.

There was no more running, no more fighting.  He could rest.  He was finally home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was really tempting to end paragraph 5 with "Kaylee wriggled and huffed, completely tired of her mom's bullshit."


	2. Day at the Office with Ruby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is gonna be the first of three little deleted/future scenes that include some requested content. I’m hoping to post all three within a few days.

6/5/11

Ruby walked down the hallway of the Citadel’s prison flanked by four Knights of Hell.  When they reached the end of the hall, one of the Knights opened the door to the last cell, then two of Knights entered.  She gave them a moment to react to any potential threats, then followed them in, leaving the other two Knights to stand guard at the cell door.

She had gotten used to having an entourage of at least two bodyguards while outside of camp.  At seven months pregnant, with Sam & her second child, she was a very real target for anyone with anti-Hell sensibilities.  For the most part she only left the camp to visit the Citadel for her work, but no one was taking chances, even in the very heart of Hell.

The prisoner was an angel that was affiliated with the Order of the Morningstar.  He had joined the group of Lucifer loyalists after the revolt in Heaven.  Four hours ago he’d been picked up by one of Hell’s task forces that was tracking the source of an effort to breach Hell’s barriers that limit interplanar communication.  It wasn’t clear whether the attempt to open a direct line to Hell was for recruitment, contacting an ally on the inside, or something else.  Before starting, Ruby double checked to make sure the angel’s warded handcuffs were secure.

“We are going to discuss fifteen topics.”  Ruby informed him.  “That’s how long you have to convince me not to have my people torture you to death.”

The prisoner stared at her belly in a way that was both annoying & unsettling.  It was a common frustration that people meeting her for the first time to fixate on the pregnancy.  But more than that, as a member of the Order, the angel was probably painfully aware that the child was a vessel for Lucifer.  She snapped her fingers and one of the Knights hit the prisoner.

“Look me in the eyes when I’m speaking to you.”  Her voice was cold & commanding.

“I serve your true King.”  The angel stated.  She didn’t want to engage in some non-sequitur, but she could at least take a shot at his reverence for Lucifer.

“Your brother, he made a little mistake when he was designing this place- it’s toxic to angels.  You see, you’re slowly dying just sitting here.”  Ruby shrugged.  “I guess maybe it wasn’t a mistake, maybe he just didn’t want to share his toys.  Either way, the longer you stay down here the weaker you’ll become.  We’re gonna have our nice long chat, just you, me, & my enforcers.”

“I won’t tell you anything.”

“Maybe you won’t, but I’m also interested in speaking with your vessel’s soul, once we kill you both.”  Ruby pulled a scroll from the pocket of her robe.  “Interesting fact, your vessel abused a disabled classmate in high school.  He’s our property and I’m guessing he’ll happily strike a deal.”

“You wouldn’t-”  Ruby snapped her fingers again resulting in another punch to the angel’s face.

“Topic one of fifteen: What are the names & species of every member of the Order that you’ve worked with directly?”

* * *

The interrogation lasted seven hours before she had to stop it.  As predicted the prisoner started faltering five hours in.  She got what she could while he was in reasonable shape, but when he lost his focus she handed him off to her subordinates.  Honestly, she was glad to be out of there, for the last hour the prisoner had gone back to staring blankly at her belly.

Walking through the hallways of the Citadel’s administrative offices she relished the peace & near isolation.  She didn’t stop moving, but she rested her hand on her belly as the baby shifted & kicked a few times.  Despite her preference for being hands on, she conceded to herself that it’d probably be a good idea to let her underlings handle interrogations for the next two months.  The poor kid was probably coming down off of her stress induced adrenaline high.  She was almost back to her office when Morrison hurried over to walk with her.

“How’s our little prince doing?”  The Archdemon nearly had a spring in his step.

“He’d be doing a lot better if he didn’t already have a job title.”  Ruby replied without bothering to slow down.  

Three months earlier Kay had told Ruby that she was secretly trying to get pregnant, but until that actually happened Ruby’s children were either first or second tier heirs to Hell’s thrown.  No one was really clear where Sam fell in the chain of succession, having been forced to disassociate with Hell’s governmental activities.  Though, if something did happen to Kay while their children were still young, Ruby was convinced that Sam would breach the agreement with Heaven in order to insulate his kids from the threats of the throne.  But hopefully, the whole thing would remain moot.

“It’s time for another check up.”  Morrison reminded her.

“Can we do it at my desk?  In the interest of efficiency.”

“Of course, whatever makes you comfortable.”

When they got back to her office, Ruby took off her traditional Maji robe, leaving her just in a pair of maternity pants & a bra.  She sat down at her desk and began making notes on her current investigation while Morrison examined her belly.  He touched her, painted sigils on her belly, took different measurements, & more.  She was used to it by then, during the first two months after her pregnancy had become public knowledge Morrison was checking on the baby almost every hour.

“He’s doing quite well.”  Morrison commented after several minutes of analysis.  He disappeared for a moment, then returned with a jar of powder & a folder.  “I’d like you to start taking another supplement.”

“Give me the recipe & full report for it.”  She refused to take any potions Morrison prescribed without carefully studying them.  He handed her the folder, which she started flipping through.  “What’s it for?”

“It enhances the pons & thalamus portions of the brain.  I’ve observed that a weakness in those regions is responsible for Sam & Kay’s migraines when their powers become exhausted.  This should significantly reduce the child’s risk of cognitive impairment from overuse of powers.”

Ruby reviewed the report’s findings carefully, then added the powder to her collection of prenatal nutritional supplements.

“During the next pregnancy I’d like to start that treatment at week 18, but as with so many things we have to refine with each version.”

“You’re talking about my kids, not prototypes.”  Ruby put her hand on her belly and subtly narrowed her eyes at him.

“I have the utmost respect & concern for each of our royal children.”  Morrison assured her.  “I’m just trying to ensure that future children receive the best start possible.”

“You sound like Crowley.”

“The whole realm is excited for his arrival.”  He stated the painfully obvious fact that she wasn’t thrilled about.  There was no doubt in her mind that the constant badgering about prenatal exams would soon be replaced by constant badgering to bring him down to Hell.  The requests for Kaylee to visit were more than enough.  “And the data that I’ve been provided is invaluable.  At this rate we may only need to study another two or three pregnancies before we can begin trials with other demons.”

“Sam & I are not on the hook to have three more kids.”  She reminded him.

“Well, with hope Kay will provide us with at least one or two children.”

“You’re doing that thing where you devalue people again.”  Ruby observed, but he didn’t acknowledge the comment.

“I think it would be best if you didn’t travel between planes during the last few days before the birth.  I know you require sleep, we could set up a bedroom for you-”

“I’m giving birth on Earth.”  

“I think it would be best to have the child here.”

“I’m not gonna make Sam miss his son’s birth.”  She was unwavering on the issue.  “If you insist on being there to study the birth you can come, but you aren’t interfering.”

“I wouldn’t dream of interfering.”  Morrison said a bit taken aback.

“Not just with the labor, I also mean no pestering Sam.”

“I’ve never pestered him.”

“You asked him if you could watch him masterbate and then keep the sample.”  Ruby scowled at the memory in order to keep herself from snickering.  “He understands that you’re trying to figure this out, but you’re more invasive than humans are used to and it can be disturbing.”

“I’ll try to be attentive to him.”  Morrison agreed.  “His well being is just as important as any other specimen of our breeding program.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I think you really need to practice your phrasing before I go into labor.”


	3. Anansi

8/2/11

“Sorry, sorry.  I came as fast as I could.”  Dean apologized as he entered Sam & Ruby’s cabin.  He tossed a duffel bag of spare clothes onto an armchair, then hugged Sam.  “I had a little emergency and then had to get Hael to give me a ride.  Cas is here, right?”

“Yeah, he’s been in with Ruby for the last few hours.”  Sam drank some water, then cringed slightly at the sound of Ruby groaning through another contraction.

“You okay?”

“She kicked me out- told me to eat something.”  Sam raised his glass of water.  “Water counts as a meal if you’re nervous enough.”

“They’re both gonna be fine.”  Dean patted Sam on the shoulder in an attempt to be comforting.

“I know.”  Sam said, but his eyes drifted back to the bedroom door.

“I’m never gonna be able to pronounce this kid’s name.”  Dean offered as a mild distraction.

“Ah-nan-see.”  Sam turned to his brother and tried once again to teach Dean.  

“All I’m hearing is Nancy.”

“Let’s face it, you’re going to give him some nickname like ‘champ’ anyway.”  Sam shook his head at the thought, then looked up concerned.  “Don’t call him Nancy or make any gender jokes.  I don’t want you making Tom uncomfortable.  He just started borrowing jewelry & accessories from the older girls in the coven.”

“No jokes, promise.”  Dean reassured.  “So, how can I help?”

“If you can just keep Kaylee distracted that’d be great.  Right now Tom is helping Dyl entertain her over at guest cabin one, but depending on how much longer this lasts we might need to take shifts.”

“I can’t really picture Dyl interacting with an 18 month old.”  Dean grinned at the strange mental images it conjured.

“He’s mostly been reading to her, which she loves.  She kept trying to sit on his lap.  I watched him put her back on the couch 31 times in about fifteen minutes before he gave up.”

“The only person to ever beat Dyl in a battle of wills can’t even count to five.”

“Hey, infants are tough.  They don’t understand no or delayed gratification.”  Sam said earning a nod of acknowledgement from Dean, then added.  “Oh man, how stubborn do you think Dyl was as a toddler?”

“Wow, that’s kinda a terrifying thought.”  Dean noted.  “Let me know if you need anything.  I’m gonna go watch Dyl try to navigate this.”  

Before Dean could leave to help with babysitting duty, Kay entered the cabin just as hastily as he had moments earlier.

“Did I miss it?”  Kay asked.

“I’m not the latest.”  Dean announced victoriously.

“I had to travel across planes.  You’re on the same continent.”

“It’s not a competition.”  Dean joked.  Kay shoved him playfully, then looked to Sam.  “Fair warning:  Morrison is on his way once he can reassign his workload.”

“Great.”  Sam said unenthusiastically, then explained for Dean’s benefit.  “He’s not malicious, he just doesn’t understand personal boundaries.  Basically I’m getting ready to exorcise him if he tries to hold Ani before me.”

“You know, if killing him is too much dabbling in politics for your forced retirement, I could do it for you.”  Dean offered.

“Ruby doesn’t want the promotion that’d involve.”  Sam shot down the hopefully joking offer.  “Thanks though.”

“With a little luck he’ll just die of excitement.”  Kay suggested with a mildly bitter tone.

“Also, not a fan?”  Dean asked.  “I thought you were getting along with all your demon cronies.”

“He’s been getting on my nerves lately.  He only leaves me alone when he’s off bugging Ruby.”  Kay turned to Sam.  “After your kid’s first check up he’s gonna be back on my ass 24/7.”

“How’re you doing?”  Sam looked at her with concerned interest.

“Regretting life choices.”  Kay put her hand on her small belly.  “I’m pretty sure my kid is half bearded dragon.”

“How much longer before you’re due?”  Dean asked, then remembered how much time she spent in Hell.  “From your perspective.”

“About four more months.”  Kay groaned.  “I’m sure it’s gonna go full porcupine by month eight.”

“Should’ve stuck with humans.”  Dean commented.  

When announcing her pregnancy to the family, Kay had explained that the donor-parent was one of the Knights, but she hadn’t specified which one.  In general there was an expectation that her child would appear fairly human- after all, whichever Knight it was had worn a meatsuit.  Though there was a little unspoken concern every time she complained about dull ‘pointy’ feelings.  No one had ever seen a ¾ demon before, but a month before Dean had arrived in 2039, Dylaniel had seen a newborn nephilim that was ¾ angel and he seemed the least convinced about whether the child would be passable for a human.

“I’m suddenly appreciating the doughy & predictable shape of humans.”  Kay conceded.

“Who’re you calling doughy?”  Dean asked only to immediately be poked in the stomach by a grinning Kay.

“Alright, I’m going back in.”  Sam said, then looked to Kay.  “You want to be in there or out here?”

“I’ve seen the miracle of childbirth before, and right now I really don’t want a visual reminder that my vagina is gonna be torn apart in a few months.”

* * *

“Anything I can do?”  Sam asked as he sat down on their bed next to Ruby.  She was only wearing one of his t-shirts and had a damp washcloth on her forehead.  Her eyes rolled over to look at Sam with wholly expected fatigue.

“Tell your son to stop being such a little shit.”

“You’re the one who wanted to play with fire.”  Sam took the washcloth off her, rewetted it, then dabbed her cheeks & neck.

“I’m so fucking done with this.”  Ruby groaned.

“You’re almost ready to start pushing.  Just another half centimeter.”  Castiel assured.

“Dean & Kay just got here.”  Sam gave her the news that he hoped in some small way might help distract her, then he hesitated for a second.  “Morrison is on his way.”

“Sam,”  She dragged the back of her hand across his.  “if he gets within three feet of my vagina I want you to kill him.”

“I don’t think you really want me to kill him.”  Sam countered in a light nonjudgmental tone.

“You’re right, I want you to hold him while I kill him.”

“I’ll take care of him.”  Sam placed the washcloth on the back of her neck, then caressed her cheek.  “You just focus on you & the baby.”

“Hard to focus on much else.”  She replied before having another contraction.

Sam subtly moved away from her, hoping to avoid her crushing any part of him while she was clenching her fists.  Instead he rested his hand on her shoulder in a gesture of support.  He offered words of reassurance and appreciation in a voice that was calmer than he felt until she relaxed again, then he gave her a small kiss.

Morrison entered the room and immediately started approaching the end of the bed where Castiel was.  Ruby glared at him in anticipation of some further intrusion, but Sam quickly got off the bed, intercepting the Archdemon.

“She’s a little homicidal right now, so you can look, but don’t get too close.”  Sam warned.

“Are violent tendencies common during labor?”  Morrison asked while peeking around Sam.

“I’m not sure, but I’m guessing Kay is going to be the same way.”  Sam gently pushed Morrison backwards until he bumped into a chair behind him.  “Sit. Observe. Try to talk as little as possible.”

“How long has she been in labor?”

“At least eight hours.”

“And you didn’t contact us soon-”

“You can start pushing.”  Castiel instructed Ruby.

“Chew us out later.  For now, shut up and be positive, or get out.”  Sam told Morrison, then turned his full attention back to Ruby.

Sam slid in to sit a bit behind her upper back.  He held her shoulders and kissed the top of her head as she pushed.  Ruby cursed & groaned loudly.  After a third big push she leaned her head back against Sam’s chest.  There were a few seconds of silence that made Sam’s stomach knot and Ruby look over at Castiel with concern.  Then there was a soft cry that filled them both with relief.  Sam wrapped his arms around Ruby, kissed her neck, and intertwined their fingers to hold her hand.

Morrison stood up and took a step toward where Castiel was cleaning up the newborn, but when he tried to take a second step he was stuck.  Sam nodded back to the chair, then released his hold on him.  Morrison returned to his seat to wait for permission to get a closer look.  When Castiel was done cleaning & wrapping the baby in a blanket, he handed him off to Sam.

Anansi’s hair was as thick as Kaylee’s had been, but was a darker brown like Ruby’s.  When he opened his eyes they were a lighter shade of brown with little green flecks in the center.  He had the same dimples as his dad & sister.  Sam caressed his soft cheek making his tiny chest huff and his fingers grip the edge of the blanket.

“Can you guys give us a minute?”  Sam told Castiel & Morrison.  Castiel nodded in understanding after healing Ruby’s vessel, then started to leave.  When Morrison hesitated, the angel grabbed his arm and forcibly removed him.

Sam sat down on the edge of the bed and positioned Anansi so that Ruby could see him.  They both silently marveled at their son for a long time.

“Hey, little guy,”  Sam greeted.  “We’re your parents.  You’ve got this comfy, safe home full of family for you.  There’s your big sister Kaylee and your big brother Tom.  Your uncles Dean & Dyl.  Auntie Kay-”

“Even a grumpy secretly-sweetheart grandpa.”  Ruby added.

“And Auntie Kay is making you a little cousin.”  Sam smiled down at his son.  “You have so many people that love you.”

Ruby reached out to take Anansi, freeing Sam up to wipe away a few tears of joy.  As she took the baby, Ruby kissed Sam softly on the lips.  They exchanged a knowing look, both understanding how far they’d come since Kaylee’s birth.  Sam thoughtfully watched Ruby gently rock their son and it hit him hard all over again.  Sam knew it- he’d known it for a long time, but in that moment he was awestruck by how much he loved her- how perfect she was.

Sam picked up Ruby’s silver fake wedding ring from the nightstand, where it’d been placed along with anything else that might impair her circulation.  He turned in over once in his hand, then knelt down on the floor next to the bed.

“What are you…”  Ruby started, then saw the ring.

“Taking advantage of your vulnerable state.”  Sam smiled up at her.  “I love you- completely and more than I ever dreamt I could.  I want to honor you and help you- I want to be with you in every way I can for the rest of my life.  Will you marry me?”

“I… if…”  Ruby flustered a bit, caught up in the emotional shock of the moment.  She looked down at Anansi, then took a moment to collect herself before turning back to Sam and responding.  “If you ever call me a ball & chain I will make you wear one.”

“Kinky.”  Sam replied as he pulled her left hand to his lips, kissed it, then slowly moved the ring to the tip of her finger.  “Is that a yes?”

“Yes.”  He slipped the ring onto her finger, then leaned in.  Their kiss started tame, but soon became more passionate, eliciting a small hum of pleasure from Sam.  Ruby broke the kiss and glanced down at their sleeping son.  “Do I still get to call the kids cute little bastards?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like some people might wonder why Ruby accepts Sam's proposal in this timeline, but not the other. The issue of whether she'd say yes was something that I debated myself on for awhile. In the end the two different Ruby's find themselves in different professional & emotional-romantic places when asked. Alt!Ruby was with a much more famous Alt!Sam and she didn't want him to define her. Also, despite being together for sever years more than this Ruby & Sam, the Alt versions took longer to acknowledge commitments. This Ruby has her own reputation beyond her personal/family life that marrying Sam won't really impact. And this timeline has a more rapid succession of gestures of commitment.


	4. Prompt: Sam & Ruby's Wedding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anonymous asked:  
> So.. do Sam and Ruby ever get married?

8/9/11

Sam stood at the edge of the lake a few hundred yards beyond the edge of camp.  He studied his reflection while listening to people quietly mingling as they arranged chairs.  The sun had just barely set beyond the western hills, but there was enough light for him to see Kay’s reflection move to stand beside his.  She wore a long black silk dress with cap sleeves and a high collar.  Just below her bust, the dress became pleated with little pops of crimson peeking through.  The largest span of red in her dress was the pleat front & center, where her belly stuck out.

“You seem nervous.”  Kay observed.  “You know that this doesn't make you legally married, right?”

“Yeah, that doesn’t matter to us.  I'm just getting some stage fright.”

“It's just the family and a few friends.”  Kay put her hand on his shoulder.  “We're gonna make fun of you whether you flub a line or not, so there isn't any pressure.”

He huffed a silent laugh, then looked over at her.  Beyond Kay a dozen coven members were helping get things ready.  There were about fifty folding chairs set in a grass clearing with a simple aisle down the middle.  Dozens of white paper lanterns had been enchanted to float in the air.  The decorations & altar at the front of the ceremony area were little more than a few lanterns that were positioned to be a backdrop.

Dean strolled over carrying his newborn nephew, Anansi.  At just a week old, Anansi didn't do much more than sleep, but he was easily one of the most popular people at the event.  He was in a red onesie covered in ravens and wrapped in a soft charcoal grey blanket.  

“You sure I can't convince you to redeem my wedding gift tonight?”  Dean asked hopefully.  He'd offered to take the lead on babysitting Sam & Ruby’s kids for three days in order to allow a small honeymoon.  Despite being outnumbered three to one, Tom was a fairly reliable assistant, especially if bribed with comic books or stories about hunts.  “The squirt here is still in that warm sleeping lump stage, so it wouldn't be so bad.”

“You think I'm really going to leave him just after he's born?  I'm waiting until Kaylee’s full-on running & he's at least crawling before we take our escape.”  Sam replied.  “Anyway, we haven't really figured out a good mobile contraceptive spell.”

“What?”

“Every spell Ruby puts on herself gets wiped out whenever she happens to walk through the throne room in Hell.  So we just hexed our bedroom for the foreseeable future.”

“I'm not gonna lie, there are a few perks to dating a guy.”  Dean commented.

“Let me know when you're gonna turn Dean into your babysitting bitch, I'll cash in a couple favors at the same time.”  Kay told Sam as she made a show of rubbing her belly.  “How do you feel about tackling three hellspawn under the age of four?”

“We’ll have to leave them at the bunker so they don't break all the windows in my cabin.”  Sam suggested playfully.

“The kids are fine, but you two are monsters.”  Dean mutttered.

“It's not the windows that’re the problem.  I can't even remember how many fires Alex started.”  Kay ignored Dean, then leaned over and spoke to Anansi.  “We’re all counting on you to not be a little pyro.  Remember: you're your own man.”

“This is a larger event than I was expecting.”  Dylaniel noted as he approached the group.

“We only have about fifty people and half of them live here.”  Sam countered.

“Have you even been to a wedding before?”  Dean asked.

“I've been to over a dozen commitment ceremonies.  Formal marriage conventions weren't as popular in our circles- the main function was to establish advanced health care agents and the posthumous custody of children.”  Dylaniel explained, ever so slightly dampening everyone's enthusiasm.

“Romance wasn't nearly as dead as he's making it sound.”  Kay said in defense of her original home.  “Keep in mind the source of your intel.”

“I think romantic displays are fascinating.”  Dylaniel looked to Sam.  “I'm curious to see what you do.”

“That's not really helping with my nerves.”  Sam shifted slightly.

“Romanticism is a natural characteristic of ours, there isn't any reason for you to be nervous.  Just be affectionate in a verbal, non-sexual way.”

“I appreciate that you want to make me feel better, but…”  Sam tried to figure out a polite way of asking Dylaniel to stop giving him advice.

“You're making him uncomfortable.”  Kay told her cousin.

“Were you planning on talking about sex?”  Dylaniel asked, uncertain why Sam might not like his advice.  Rather than risk making the situation worse, he turned in search of a seat saying over his shoulder.  “I trust your judgment.”

“Don't mind him, he just gets a little awkward around this kind of stuff.”  Kay assured Sam.  “I'm not sure if he doesn't understand some social norms or if he just doesn't see them as worthy of his participation.”

“That's half of why I like hanging out with him.  He's great to take to the movies.  Last week…”  Dean trailed off when he saw Anael walking up to them.  

She wore an emerald green dress with minimal gold beading.  When she reach them, she smiled all around, though she looked distinctly tired for an angel.  Her eyes lingered for a moment on Dean holding Anansi, but she quickly turned her attention to Sam.

“I'm glad you could make it.”  Sam hugged her.  “How've you been?  I haven't seen you in forever.”

“I've been very busy,”  She confided, then added.  “but I know how much this means to you.  Thank you for inviting me.”

“Are you going to stay for dinner?”

“Unfortunately no, I really should be getting back once the ceremony itself is done.”  Anael hesitated.  “I've been preoccupied with a project for awhile, but I'm finally starting to have slightly more flexibility with my time.  With some notice I might be able to meet for lunch sometime.”

“It’s still a little risky for me to be out in public, but if you wanted to come by here you're always welcome or you two,”  Sam nodded at Dean & Anael.  “should feel free to do stuff without me.”

Dean & Anael exchanged an uncertain glance.  After a moment Dean opened his mouth to say something, but Tom excitedly ran down the aisle to them drawing everyone's attention.

The eight year old was wearing a black & red suit that matched Sam, but he wore red sneakers.  His hair was held back in a flower crown of red roses & hibiscuses that matched his small necktie.  He bounced on the balls of his feet while waiting a second to make sure he wasn't cutting someone off, then looked up to Sam.

“Sam-”  Tom said, furrowed his brow a bit thrown by himself. “I mean dad-”

“Either way, whatever you're comfortable with.”  Sam assured.

It'd only been about a month since Sam & Ruby had sat down with Tom and discussed adopting him in a more official way.  With the new baby almost there they'd had concerns about whether Tom would feel replaced or pushed aside by a biological son.  He was eager to have the security & comfort of the closer & more formal relationship.  Though they were all still getting used to various aspects of the change, including terminology.  The only person who never slipped up on the familial titles was Kaylee, who’d insisted Tom was her brother since learning the word months before anyone else had committed.

“I know.”  Tom acknowledged the well established lax standards.  “Mom says she's ready.”

“Alright, time to grab some seats.”  Dean said as he started shooing Kay & Anael toward the chairs.

Sam took his position front & center of the altar equivalent, then watched as everyone took their seats.  He knew that everyone was there to be supportive of him & Ruby and indulge his desire to have a variant on the traditional human milestone.  The thought that he had so many people in his life that would do that for him made his chest feel a little tight with emotion.  They were the family & friends he hadn't dared to hope for during his youth.

He watched Bobby hug Kay before resting his palm on her belly to feel some movement.  Castiel was discussing something with Dylaniel & Crowley, who put his arm around the angel’s shoulder as part of some sort of pitch.  Shola appeared next to Dean and was immediately greeted with a friendly peck on the cheek, only to be stolen away by Anael who seemed to need some professional advice.  Dean shrugged off his lost company by playing with Anansi until Pascoe took a seat next to him and started gossiping based on their body language.

While the seats filled, Tom got into position at Sam's side as his best man.  Sam patted his back in reassurance as the boy checked for the fifth time to make sure he still had the rings in his pocket.  Bobby strolled up to stand with Sam as some background music started playing, signaling everyone to get ready because the show was about to get underway.  Jody & Belda quickly took their seats indicating that Ruby was no longer getting help with her preparations.

Kaylee turned the corner around the back row of chairs and started down the aisle in her little white & red rose patterned dress.  Her light brown hair was pulled back in a big red bow.  She took a few steps, then remembered that she was supposed to be sprinkling rose petals as she walked down the aisle.  When she reached the end of the aisle she noticed that there were still a good number petals left, so she simply upturned the basket, dumping a pile on the ground.  She kicked the pile disbursing it a few inches, shrugged to herself, then smiled up at her dad.  Sam looked down at Kaylee and pet the top of her head reassuringly.  While he was watching her, his daughter she let out an excited squeak, then ran back down the aisle where she’d just come from.  He looked up and saw what had caught her attention.

Ruby was standing at the far end of the aisle.  She wore a form-fitting sleeveless silver dress with a dark red train.  When she saw Kaylee running to her, Ruby without hesitation tossed her bouquet of red hibiscus flowers & white orchids into the small audience, then knelt down.  She scooped Kaylee up in her arms earning a giggle.  After situating the not quite two year old on her hip, Ruby started walking down the aisle.  Sam watched her, a vision of beauty if he’d ever seen one, carrying their daughter without a care for propriety.  When Ruby got to the front of the altar, she set Kaylee down on the ground.

“You ready?”  Bobby asked, from between the couple & the backdrop of floating white lanterns.

“Yeah.”  Ruby replied, but Sam just continued staring in awe at Ruby.

“Sam?  You with us Sam?”  Bobby tried again.

“Yeah.”  Sam nodded as he started taking in everything around him again.

“Okay.  I thought you both were idjits when you asked me to do this.”  Bobby began officiating.  “I’m still pretty sure you’re just trying to embarrass me-”

“Just trying to keep you dry until the reception.”  Dean shouted, earning a few chuckles.

“Anyway, I’ve known Sam since he was a kid and Ruby since that time I shot her.”  A few more laughs floated up from the audience, but Tom leaned sideways around Sam to eye the old hunter.  “I’ve seen you both go through a lot- more than anyone should have to, but despite everything you've both turned into people I couldn't be happier to know.  Life's hard- relationships take work, but if you bust your ass to hold onto the people that make your life better- well, that's how you make a family.

You've invited all of us here to help you celebrate your commitment to each other and in the process, you're making our very strange family even bigger.”  Bobby paused a beat to let the audience have a moment to appreciate the collection of people in attendance.  “Sam & Ruby prepared a few words because I'm sure as hell not doin’ all the work up here.”

Tom promptly stepped forward and handed Sam & Ruby the rings to be exchanged.  Rather than getting new rings they decided to use the same ones that they'd bought over two years earlier to serve as fake wedding rings.  Once Tom had returned to his previous position, Sam began.

“You’ve saved me in every way there is.  You saved my life the first time I saw you.  You saved me from despair when I'd completely lost hope.  You saved me from death or worse- when I falter you save me from myself.  You're my hope & my home.”  Sam slid the simple silver ring onto Ruby’s finger.  “You make dreams real and for the first time in my life I'm not scared to dream because we're together.  I can't begin to express how grateful I am for you, but I plan on trying for the rest of my life.”

Ruby squeezed his hand and beamed up at him for a moment before beginning.

“For a really long time I didn't understand that Hell isn’t a place or a punishment.  Hell is whatever my life was before you came crashing into it with your unrelenting goodness & puppy dog eyes.  I didn't understand how little I had until you gave me everything.  You made me a better person when the world wouldn't even call me a person.  You're my best friend, my partner- an incredible lay-”  Ruby added quickly.  “When we're together I finally feel whole... We've given a lot to be here together with all we have, and I'm damn well not gonna let anything change that.  You're stuck with me for the rest of our lives, no matter what lies ahead.”

Ruby slid the matching ring onto Sam's finger, then nodded to Bobby to let him know to proceed.

“If anyone here thinks these two shouldn't get married, you better keep it to yourself or Ruby’ll kill you.”  Bobby parodied.  “Without any power vested in me, I pronounce you husband & wife- now kiss already before Sam has a heart attack.”

Sam barely even let Bobby finish talking before he eagerly pulled Ruby into a kiss.  One of his hand held her lower back to him while the other supported the back of her head.  Ruby's hand cupped Sam's face, thumb caressing his cheek, wiping away a tear of joy.  She pulled back an inch, just enough to whisper.

“I love you.”  Ruby said softly, for him alone.  He kissed her again even more ravenously than before until the audience started heckling them and they reluctantly broke the kiss.  After regaining their composure, Sam picked up Kaylee as Dean handed Anansi to Ruby.  “Alright, let's go party!”


	5. Dean & the Agents

10/02/2011

Dean was sitting alone in a booth at one of his favorite diners.  He’d ordered his lunch and was skimming through the newspaper, trying to find the local interest stories after reading several disheartening pieces like speculation on Japan’s forced evacuation of Hachijō-jima island.  In general he tried to pay attention to what was happening in the world, but with so many small scale events he had to focus most of his attention on things that hit closer to home.  He was just about to give up and turn to the comics section when two nearly middle aged men in official looking suits slid into the booth across from him.  

“Fellas, I don’t know what you’re-”

“I’m Agent Reyes,”  The older of the two men introduced himself, then nodded to his partner.  “and this is Agent Barcelos.”

“We need to have a word with you, Mr. Winchester.”

“If you really are FBI, then show me your badges.”  Dean said skeptically.  Despite not having impersonated a fed in over a year, he was pretty sure he could still spot a fake badge.

“We aren’t FBI.”  

The agents pulled their badges out of their coat pockets and pushed they across the table.  Dean’s stomach dropped as soon as he saw the badges.  In the almost two years since the power plant incident, he’d never had an encounter with the Department of Extranatural & Planar Affairs.  The fledgling agency was tasked with monitoring all things related to the supernatural within the United States.  He’d tried like hell to stay off their radar, yet they’d finally figured out who he was.  For the briefest of moments he’d considered trying to throw his coffee in their faces and making a run for it, but he quelled the fight & flight responses.

“Okay, you’ve made your point.”  Dean said quietly as he pushed the badges back toward the agents.  He came to that diner so often he knew all the servers’ names and how their kids were doing.  One of the last things he wanted was for word to get out that he’d been questioned by DEPA- the agents were counting on it.  “What do you want?”

“We just have a few questions.”  Reyes said as they put their badges away.

“I’m not sure I have any answers.”  Dean replied coldly.

“That’s not a very cooperative tone.”  Barcelos nodded to the impala.  “If we were to search your car we wouldn’t happen to find any unregistered weapons or artifacts, would we?”

“I’m retired.  Anything I still have is just for self-defense.”

“People like you do have a lot of enemies.”  Barcelos managed to turn the agreement into a threat.

“You’re a law abiding civilian now.”  Reyes commented ambiguously as he pulled a small tablet from his jacket and began scrolling through something.  “You work as an automotive mechanic at Five Star Repair & Body.  You rent a room from Leroy McCollum-”

“Former hunter.”  Barcelos interjected.

“But you spend most nights with your boyfriend, a Giang Vo- I believe you call him Jeremy.”  Reyes paused a beat to let the numerous unspoken threats sink in.  “We’d just like to have a nice little chat and let you get back to your quiet little life.”

“Have you had any recent contact with angels?”  Barcelos pressed.

“No.”

“Think hard about how you want the next few minutes to go.”  Reyes cautioned.  “We know you’ve had contact with angels before.  We have witnesses that have placed you with a… Castiel on multiple occasions.”

“I haven’t seen Castiel in months.  He used to come to me for advice on human customs, but as far as I know he hasn’t been of Earth for a long time.”  Dean lied, then anchored it with some truth.  “He took some promotion or something based on Heaven.”

“What’s the position?”

“He didn’t tell me.”  Another lie.

“Where’d you get the scar?”  Barcelos pointed at the cut across Dean’s forehead.

“I got mugged.”

“And you didn’t report it to the police?”  Reyes candidly baited him.  They all knew he didn’t want to risk unnecessary interactions with law enforcement.

“I don’t want to be a bother.”  

“If you’re friends with an angel, why not get it healed.”  Reyes took another jab at him, trying to break free some details.

“I like the way it looks.”  Yet another lie.  Seeing the scar was one of his triggers- reminding him of Dee, making him worry about the uncertain future, & stirring up feelings of guilt from lying to Jeremy about it.

“Where’s your brother?”  Barcelos tried to blindside him.

“He’s dead.”  

Dean didn’t have to pretend to feel hurt & anger at answering questions about Sam.  These were some of the people that could be most dangerous and least open minded to the actual situation.  The idea that they were interested in Sam was legitimately upsetting.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Heaven sent one of their angels down, Castiel, to let me know- next of kin and all, that one of the rogue angels killed him.”  There had been hundreds of humans killed by angels in the week or so leading up to the sixty fifth seal breaking.  It wasn’t a completely far fetched story.

“What do you know about the Indian Point One incident?”  

They were asking about the fight at the power plant.  He’d managed to dodge being questioned on that so far, but it made sense that it’d come up as soon as he was discovered.  As far as he knew there wasn’t any evidence of him or Sam left at the scene, though in an attempt to find Sam during his imprisonment Sam’s photo had been released to the media.  Despite a lack of evidence connecting the events, the timing was suspicious and the DEPA was apparently running down their fresh lead no matter how tenuous.

“I saw it on the news.  It looks like you guys have a demon problem.”

“Speaking of demon problems, any idea why the angel killed your brother?”  Barcelos’ upper lip curled into almost a snarl as he spoke, hinting at some underlying hostility towards maybe demons- maybe Sam.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You know that he was a psychic, right?”  Reyes stated more than asking.

“He was working with demons.  He killed humans.”  Barcelos tagged in.  “Rumor is that he was supposed to be in charge of a demon army-”

“A lot like the army at Indian Point One-”

“I don’t give a fuck who you people-”  Dean snapped, but the distinctive click of a gun being cocked stopped him.  One of the agents was aiming at him under the table.  Dean slowly placed his palms on the table top and took a deep breath.

“We just want to talk.  This doesn’t have to become anything more than that.”  Reyes assured, but it was cold comfort until the gun was safetied & holstered.  “We’re investigating some very dangerous creatures and we will get the information we need.  You can politely answer a few more questions, or we can arrest you for unregistered hunting.  Minimum sentence is three years in the Black Box.”

The Black Box was the nickname for five different maximum security prisons that had recently been retrofitted to accommodate inmates & defend against attackers who were proficient with magic & interplanar travel.  On top of being a jail that actually might be able to hold him, there were two more serious concerns.  Rumor was that the prisoners weren’t segregated, meaning that former hunters were intermixed with witches, werewolves, & any other creature that was deemed close enough to human to not be killed upon capture.  This meant that a significant number of “accidents” befell hunters on the inside.  The other concern was that it appeared prisoners were routinely interrogated for information on other potential violators.  He didn’t doubt his ability to endure torture, but the experience would certainly reset his PTSD from Hell back to a devastating point.

“Do you have any idea how much leeway we have to investigate unregistered hunters?”  Reyes continued.  “We can take apart your work, your home.  You stay at your boyfriend’s apartment enough, we could search that.  Heck, we could take your boy into custody while he’s at his job.”

“I don’t know what Sam was into.  He went hunting after some demon and got into the demonic stuff while we weren’t talking.”  Dean thought his sincere fear must’ve been coming through because the agents were looking particularly smug & satisfied.  “It freaked me out when he started getting into that stuff.  We got into a fight.  I don’t know anything after that.”

“Are you familiar with angelic vessels?”

“What…”  The agents must’ve mistook his shock that the deeply personal & dangerous subject came up for simple confusion because they didn’t immediately hammer him with follow up questions.  He decided to roll with the perception.  “Are those like demon meatsuits, but for angels?”

“Okay,”  Unenticed, Reyes turned to the next line of questioning.  “we’re going to run some names by you and you just tell us if any of them ring a bell.”

“Rufus Turner.”  That was too easy, they were testing him.

“Old hunting acquaintance.  We did maybe four jobs together.  I haven’t seen or heard from him in years.”

“Jody Mills.”

“She’s a sheriff over in Sioux Falls.  A few years ago I helped her with a few local emergencies-”

“Monsters?”  Barcelos pushed for clarification.

“Yeah.  She treats me to dinner any time I’m in the area.”

“Do you go out there often?”

“I have a friend who lives out that way.”

“You mean Robert Singer?”  Reyes asked while scrolling further down whatever list he was reviewing.

“The hunter.”  Barcelos added.

“Retired hunter.”  Dean lied for what felt like the hundredth time.

“It’s funny how everyone’s retired.”  Barcelos muttered.

“That’s what happens when you start sending people to Guantanamo.”  Dean shot back.

“Don’t be funny, it’s not going to help you right now.”  Reyes warned.  “How about Amy Pond?”

“From Dr. Who?”  Dean raised his hands apologetically.  “Not being funny.  Just- are you sure that’s a real name?”

“Alright.”  Reyes made a note on the tablet.  “Paloma Martens?”

“Never heard of her.”

Reyes sighed, made a few notes on his tablet, then looked at his partner.  After a few thoughtful seconds the agents exchanged nods of moderate satisfaction.  Reyes was about to wrap it up, Dean just wasn’t sure if it’d end with a threat or an arrest.

“I don’t need to tell you how important it is that you be forthcoming with us- about things that happened in the past, things going on right now, things that you hear might happen.  You see the way the new system works, it’s people like us doing our job that keeps it so that people like you can keep your 9-5 & your Friday date nights at the Bottleneck.”  Dean could hear the pistol being uncocked, then saw Barcelos shift as he holstered the gun.  Reyes pulled a business card out of his pocket and placed it on the table.  “If you see or hear anything out of the ordinary, give us a call.”

* * *

It took all of Dean’s self control to not immediately leave the diner as soon as they left.  He tried to eat some of his meal, but he’d completely lost his appetite.  They were undoubtedly watching him, hoping that he’d run off to go warn the others and accidentally lead the agents to new targets.  After paying for his food, he calmly drove to the garage that he worked at, then spent the next ten hours systematically inspecting every inch of the impala looking for mundane or magical tracking or listening devices.  

After confirming that his car was clean he walked the block to where he was renting a room.  He didn’t actually sleep there except for on rare occasions, it was just to help conceal the existence of the bunker.  Once he was in the bedroom with the door closed he once again searched for any sort of spying device.  As with the car it hadn’t been tampered with.

Dean shoved the mess he’d made on the bed onto the floor, then laid down.  He wasn’t sure what to do.  His natural impulse was to pack up the impala and run- go back to living on the road.  The thought made him want to throw up.  Shitty motels, bad food, long nights hustling pool, losing his handful of local friends, leaving Jeremy.  If he left the DEPA agents would almost certainly tell Jeremy about him- they’d probably threaten Jeremy trying to find him.  

He pulled the pillow down in front of his face and cried for a few minutes.  After collecting himself he prayed to Castiel, who appeared in the bedroom a minute later.

“Something’s wrong.”  Castiel said as soon as he saw the trashed room and Dean’s pink eyes.

“I need you to go let the others know that the DEPA contacted with me.  I don’t know how closely they’re keeping track of me, but I can’t call the family on my normal phone or any of that stuff.”

While he explained the situation, Dean grabbed a duffel bag from the closest.  He pulled up the floorboards under his desk, then started collecting his hidden stash of weapons & books.  After emptying the compartment in the floor, he dug through his nightstand looking for any charms he had.  He tossed all of the charms into the duffel except for the dreamless sleep charm he used to as part of his PTSD treatment.  Last, he yanked the sheet off his bed in order to reach a hole he’d cut into the side of his mattress.  He pulled out the envelope of recent photos of his family.  All of the pictures containing Sam, Dylaniel, Ruby, Kay, or his niece or nephews went into the duffel.

“I can take you to the camp.”  Castiel offered.

“I can’t go- if I disappear now they’ll think I ran for it.  I won’t be able to come back.”  Dean explained.

“I can at least acquire a new phone for you.”

“Thanks.”  Dean handed Castiel the duffel of incriminating objects.  “Also my car is at the shop.  Can you teleport in there real quick and clear out all of my hunting gear?  Take it back to the bunker or to the camp.”

“Of course.”

“Can you ask the gang to try to find out how bad this is?”  Depending on how closely he was being monitored he wouldn’t be able to drive to the bunker or visit his family.  “And I told the agents Sam’s dead- I think they were looking for him.  I don’t know if they believed me.  And tell Bobby he’s on their list of knowns along with Rufus- they’re checking on Jody too.  And some alias Amy Pond and Paloma Martins or Martens or something- they might be some of Bobby’s.”

“Are you okay?”  Castiel asked after physically stopping Dean’s anxious pacing.

“No.”  

* * *

Dean walked back to the garage, picked up his newly contraband-free car, then drove to Jeremy’s apartment.  As soon as he got inside the door, Dean hugged Jeremy tightly, trying to find some stability.

“It’s almost 3.  What’s wrong?”  Jeremy asked, hugging him back while rubbing his bleary eyes.

“Some guys threatened me- they were cops.”  He felt a morbid gratitude that Jeremy been manhandled by a cop a few years earlier and was naturally inclined to distrust them.  Half the time the news came on there was some story that would reinforce his perception that most of them were bullies.

“Did something happen?  Do you need a lawyer?”  

Jeremy let go of Dean for a moment to check for anything akin to a black eye.  Dean exhaled an emotionally exhausted sigh of mild amusement.  Jeremy did love trying to save his troublemaker of a boyfriend- that was probably the only reason he was as patient with Dean as he was.

“Nothing happened.  I don’t need a lawyer.”  Dean rubbed his face.  “I’m just rattled.”

“Come on.”  Jeremy led Dean to the bed.  They climbed in with Dean still fully clothed and just held each other.  The thought of losing everything, especially moments like that made Dean cling to Jeremy while struggling to not cry again.  Jeremy started running his fingers through Dean’s hair to help comfort him.  “You can stay with me as long as you need.”

“You aren’t scared of harboring a fugitive?”  Dean joked weakly.

“Please, I’ve known for months about you evading your taxes- wait, you aren’t wearing one of those ankle tracking devices, are you?  Do I need to do a strip search just to be safe?”  Jeremy playfully reached for Dean’s belt.

“Thanks, but I’m a little too worn out for anything right now- I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.”  Jeremy wrapped his arms back around Dean, spooning him.  “Never apologize for telling me what’s wrong.”

Dean opened his mouth, but hesitated.  As much as he wanted to tell Jeremy about everything that had gone on, it just felt like too much to ask of someone.  Jeremy was patient with his fuck ups, but knowing about the hunting & his family- especially with the DEPA potentially around.  Dean wanted to keep that mess as far away from Jeremy as possible.  Getting involved with that side of his life was a level of commitment Dean wasn’t prepared to subject Jeremy to.

“Any chance you can go into work late tomorrow?”  Dean asked hopefully.  “I’ll make you pancakes.”

“If you make them banana pecan pancakes I’ll call in sick.”  Jeremy countered.

“Now who’s the bad boy?”

“Still you.”

“Run away with me.”  Dean whispered, unsure if he was serious or not.

“I refuse to go on the lam for anything less that a felony.”  Jeremy kissed the back of Dean’s neck.  “Get some sleep, everything’s going to be okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone really think that everything was going to be happily ever after?


	6. The Matter of Ms. Pond

10/04/11

“I’m going to get him.”  Dylaniel said as he stood up from his seat at Sam & Ruby’s dining table.

Sam, Ruby, Kay, & Dyl had all been called together to hear Castiel’s account of Dean’s emergency meeting after being questioned by the DEPA agents.  Tom hovered in the living room, trying to listen to news about his uncle while trying to distract the family’s infants.

“Dean doesn’t want to leave.”  Castiel told Dylaniel while taking a step toward the nephilim to potentially try physically stopping him.

“I don’t care what he wants, he’s in danger.”

“You can’t just take him.”  Kay warned her cousin.  “He’s not an idiot, he knows what’s going on and he probably has a better idea of the actual danger than us.”

“He doesn’t want to leave his partner.”  Castiel voiced the underlying issue.

“I’ll take his boyfriend too.”  Dylaniel revised his plan.

“Dyl, you can’t just going around kidnapping people.”  Ruby cautioned.

“Leaving him exposed like this is a bad idea.”

“Nobody likes it, but we can’t force him to do anything.”  Sam joined in the attempt to get Dylaniel to back down.

“Maybe I can’t force him to come here,”  Dylaniel conceded.  “but I can explain to him how stupid he’s being.”

“Don’t contact him right now.  The DEPA has to know what you look like after that whole church video thing.”

“Dyl, just sit down and take a minute to get yourself under control.”  Kay told him.  Dylaniel’s lips thinned, but he sat back down.

“So the DEPA were watching Dean, but what do they want?”  Ruby redirected their focus back to diagnosing the specific threats & issues.

“He said they asked about Sam and he suggested to them that Sam was dead.”  Castiel explained.  “They had identified Bobby & Rufus as hunters and were investigating Jody.”

“Bobby’s out of state with Jody.  I’ll let them know to stay on vacation until we get this sorted out.”  Ruby updated everyone.  “And he knows how to get ahold of Rufus.”

“Dean was also asked about a woman whose name he couldn’t remember, either Paloma Martins or Martens.”

“She isn’t any hunter I’ve heard of.”  Sam said with a shrug.

“Does that sound familiar to you too?”  Kay asked her cousin.

“Vaguely.”  Dylaniel’s brow furrowed imperceptibly.  “That’s alarming.”

“Great.”  Ruby sighed.  “I’ll add the names to my persons of interest list.  I can’t wait until one of those DEPA souls comes through my workshop, then maybe we could get some better intel.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”  Dylaniel commented.

“Don’t go killing Feds.”  Kay warned, uncertain if he was joking or not.  “The last thing we need is an act of war.”

“I’m not affiliated with any faction.”

“Good luck explaining that.  Heaven knows you’re related to Dean & Kay’s related to Sam.  It doesn’t take a genius or a paranoid to connect those dots.”  Ruby pointed out.  “Any more intel we can use, Cas?”

“The agents also questioned him about an Amy Pond-”

“Amy Pond?”  Sam & Kay both asked at the same time, then looked at each other.

“She’s- is she alive?”  Sam asked Kay, who apparently had heard of her.

“She should be.  I think she died… around-”

“2018.”  Dylaniel filled in the blank.

“Who’s Amy Pond?”  Ruby raised an eyebrow

“She was,”  Sam paused for a moment trying to figure out how to describe her.  “an old friend of mine when I was a teenager.  We were pen pals until I went to Stanford and then we met up a few times.  Near the end of my freshman year she just dropped off the map… I assumed she’d died.”

“Died?”

“Amy’s a kitsune.”  Sam explained, then his face dimmed a bit at some memory.  “I… figured a hunter probably got her.”

“Why is the DEPA asking Dean about her?”  Ruby mused.  “If you thought she was dead for so long and Dean’s never heard of her, I’m guessing she hasn’t just been crossing too many paths with you guys.”

“Because she’s going to try to contact him.”  Dylaniel speculated.  “Kit originally contacted my dad in an attempt to reach my uncle.  If she’s come out of hiding it’s probably because she’s trying to find Sam.”

“Who’s Kit?”  Sam asked.

“Her son.”  Kay explained.  “In our time, after things started falling apart her pack was attacked by Lilith’s demons.  She died in the attack and Kit went looking for help from the only nice hunter he’d heard of.”

“So she might be looking for the only nice hunter she knows this time around.”  Ruby agreed with the theory.

“My dad was a lot easier to find than my uncle in our time.”  Dylaniel continued.  “It stands to reason that Dean will similarly be an easy point of contact.”

“We need to go- warn Dean and find out how to help her.”  Sam said as he shifted, seemingly to get up, but Ruby put her hand on his arm silently asking him to hold still.

“You aren’t going anywhere.”  Kay told Sam.  “If there’s a chance that DEPA is watching Dean, you’re staying the hell away.”

“Same goes for you, Dyl, & Cas.”  Ruby added.  “You all are pretty recognizable to the right eyes.  I’ll switch meatsuits and make contact with Dean.  I can let him know to watch out for her.”

“While we’re at it, we need to find out how closely he’s being watched.”  Kay suggested.  “It’d be nice if it turned out to be a one time shakedown and we can cut down on this cloak & dagger stuff.”

“I have something that might help.”

* * *

Dean had barely been at work long enough to start the coffee maker and begin reviewing parts orders for the last week when he heard someone walking into the garage.  He’d mostly calmed down after the unnerving run in with the agents, but he still felt strangely exposed.  They’d dragged him through the mud, threatened him in nearly every way imaginable, and forced him to isolate himself.  But on top of it, the experience had made him feel vulnerable in a way he wasn’t used to.  He leaned to peek out the doorway of the garage’s small office.  The woman who ran the bodega down the street was looking around for something.

“Need some help?”  He called out to her.  When she saw him, she quickly walked to the office he was in, entered, and closed the door behind her.  Before he could ask what was going on, she started.

“Dean, it’s Ruby-”

“What are you doing here?”  His mind was racing trying to imagine all the ways things could go wrong- or maybe how they had.

“We’ve got a bit of a situation.”

“No shit- is everyone okay?”

“We’re fine.  Cas told us about the DEPA goons dropping in on you-”

“If I get spotted with you-”

“I know, but right now we’re okay.  Here.”  Ruby handed him an analog wristwatch.  “The dial in the bottom right tells you how many people are observing you at any given moment.  We use spells like this for our agents in the field.”

When he put it on the dial only read one, presumably Ruby.  He wasn’t a fan of wearing a spell that was probably patented by Hell’s spymasters, but it was better than constantly worrying about surveillance.

“When you say observing?”

“Seeing, hearing, scrying, et cetera.”  She explained.  “It’s the best I could do on short notice, but with some time I might be able to get more data output into other dials or subtle displays.”

“Thanks, even this is a big help.”  Dean studied the watch.  “I’ll track the numbers, see if they’re watching me and if it’s a routine or random.  Until then I’m pretty much stuck and you should get back out of dodge.”

“I haven’t finished all my business yet.”  Ruby moved closer to him.  “We think Amy Pond might try to contact you.”

“Who?”  He recognized her name from the conversation with the agents, but he didn’t have a clue who she was.

“I guess she was Sam’s friend when he was a teenager- You met her son, Kit, back in 2039.”

“Kit…”  Dean pursed his lips.  She was a kitsune- and she was trying to find him, potentially putting all of them in danger.  “What does she want?  I can’t be seen with her.  I told them I didn’t know her.”

“We think she’s looking for help, couldn’t tell you what with though.”

Dean pinched the bridge of his nose.  In general he didn’t have anything against trying to help her.  He’d barely interacted with Kit, but he seemed like a decent guy.  That was enough to overcome the resistance that he felt about Amy being a kitsune he’d never met.  But having her ambush him, while he was potentially under surveillance and she was wanted by the DEPA… as much as it made him feel like a horrible person, he wanted to get her away from him as fast as possible.

“If I see her I’ll send her to a crossroads demon.”

“Like she’s gonna go talk to a stranger.”  Ruby argued.

“I’m a stranger.”

“You’re Sam’s brother.”

“She knew him when we were teenagers?”  Dean shook his head.  “Me being his brother might not earn me too many points.”

“She’s coming for you.  I know you don’t want trouble- I get that you want out.”  He hadn’t made a big deal about cutting back on hunting and focusing more on the mundane.  No one had asked him if he wanted out of the life.  It felt bizarre to hear, but her nonjudgmental tone made him feel less ashamed at the thought of retiring.  He just had to keep his head down and make it past a rough spot.  “But trouble is coming for you and you’re gon-”

“Excuse me?”  A woman called from the other side of the door.

“She needs help.”  Ruby mouthed to Dean.  

He got up to open the door.  If it was Amy he wanted to get her out of view as quickly as possible.  A woman with pale skin & messy brown hair stood just inside the door to the garage.  She was holding an oversized sweater around herself in a very nervous posture.  Her eyes flicked around the room and her nose twitched curiously.  Dean immediately saw the resemblance to Kit.

“Excuse me, are you Dean Winchester?”  

“Yeah, come on in.  Have a seat.”  Dean invited her to the small office where Ruby was still waiting.  When Amy saw Ruby she hesitated to enter.

“I need to talk to you about something private.  It’s not about a car.”  Amy explained to Dean.

“I can wait outside.”  Ruby started leaving.

“Don’t go far.”  Dean suggested, hoping to keep his sister-in-law away from the line of sight of anyone on the street.

“Are you Sam’s brother?  The hunter?” Amy asked as soon as Ruby was outside and the door was closed.

For just a moment it was so tempting to find a way of deflecting Amy, but he couldn’t do that to her.  The closer he looked at her the more he could see that something was wrong.  Her skin was pale & clammy, with a bit of shadow around the eyes- she hadn’t been sleeping enough.  She was pressing her limbs to herself & the office chair in order to conceal that she was trembling.

“I’m Sam’s brother, but I’m not much of a hunter anymore.”  He hoped that put her more at ease.

“I need to see him, it’s an emergency.  I need his help.”  

“Sam’s in a bit of a tight spot right now.  There are some very powerful & bad people looking for him, including the DEPA.”  Amy’s eyes widened at the mention of the organization.  “I might be able to help you.  Our friend Ruby- she’s the one waiting outside, she might be able to help also.  So if you can tell us what you need, maybe we can make it happen.  Okay?”

Amy thought for a moment, then nodded agreement.  Dean tapped on the window into the area where Ruby was waiting, letting her know to come back in.  While Ruby was coming back in, Dean poured Amy a cup of coffee, which she eagerly accepted.  He quickly checked his watch to confirm they weren’t being observed before they started getting to the meat of it.

“My name is Amy Pond.”

“Sam’s friend from way back.”  Dean offered to show some level of familiarity with her, hopefully reinforcing a sense of trust.

“He told you about me?”  Amy asked a bit surprised.

“Very little.  He said you’re,”  Dean lowered his voice a bit to show his sensitivity to the elephant in the room.  “a kitsune.”

She nodded and absentmindedly pushed some hair behind her ear.  The sleeve of her sweater fell down her arm a few inches revealing several day old bruises.  After spotting Dean looking at them she covered them back up.

“What happened?”

“My pack has been under attack for weeks.  A group of hunters hit us, so we’ve been on the run, but even non-hunters are looking out for monsters these days.”  Dean’s heart broke a little when she called herself a monster.  “We’d lost our leader & most of our fighters.  We haven’t been able to hunt enough, so we’ve been scavenging off corpses & animals.  Our children are getting sick.  Half the time there’s a guard at the morgue now- it’s a fight just to get scraps or we can try to get fresh food and risk having another attack on us- we can’t take another.  The children are too weak to keep running like this.”

“How can we help?”  Dean asked.

“I can talk to Kay.”  Ruby suggested to Dean.  “She might have access to some end of the line meatsuits.  That’d be a little food, but that’s just part of the problem.”

“Any food would be incredible, but I need to get my pack out of the country.”  Amy replied.

“Where are you trying to go?”

“Hachijō-jima.”

“That island in Japan?”  Dean had read something about it in the news just recently.  “They’re evacuating that place.”

“The island’s being converted to a refugee camp for non-humans.”  Amy explained.

“If there aren’t any humans, how’ll you survive?”  Ruby asked.

“The government said it will delivering shipments of food & other supplies- the brains are animal, but it’s possible to live off of them.”  Amy answered.  “They’ll let us live, they just want to keep us together in one place.”

The whole thing seemed wrong somehow.  The cynic in him expected the non-humans to simply be slaughtered upon arrival- even it they weren’t, they’d still be more or less confined and almost certainly in meager conditions.

“They’re making an internment camp?  If you’re lucky.”  Dean speculated.  “You’re talking about putting your lives in the hands of a human government while the world is still relearning to be scared of the dark.”

“That’s my people’s homeland before we scattered.  We’re part of their culture.  If any government is going to protect us it’s Japan.”  Amy added, but didn’t deny Dean’s characterization.  “I know it’s dangerous, but… We have claws & fangs and we eat people.  We’re horrible monsters- and scared people don’t think twice about it.  Six of my pack have been killed in the last month.  Our people are dying out.  At this point I don’t care if we’re stuck there as long as I don’t have to worry about my son getting killed in the street.”

“Being locked up on an island, that’s not a long term solution.”  Dean looked over at Ruby.  The coven’s sanctuary wasn’t large enough for them to just take in every sympathetic person they met.  Not to mention, there wasn’t a close hunting ground for the kitsune that might not be as self-restrained as Kit or Amy.

“Anything is better than this.”  Amy told him.

“I’m hearing two different issues.  You’re worried about your pack and you’re worried about your species.”  Dean said.  “I know that kitsune are endangered- I can’t imagine what that’s like, but if there was a way to keep your pack safe without stuffing you in the cage with the rest of the species-”

“My pack needs to rejoin our people.  We don’t have any fighters left let alone someone capable of leading a pack.”

“What about your son?”  Dean asked.

“He’s too young for starters.”  Amy rejected the idea.  “Jacob might be able to be a fighter someday, but he isn’t ever going to be leader of a pack.”

“Why can’t he lead?”  Dean remembered Kit’s speech impediments, but he found it hard to believe that something as small as that would be a problem.

“There's… there’s a problem with his status… his legitimacy.”  Amy rubbed the back of her neck anxiously debating whether to tell them something.  “I temporarily ran away from the pack when I found out I was pregnant.  There was a chance it was Sam’s kid- the pack would've…”

Dean’s brain hiccupped on the thought that Sam had had sex with Amy and might’ve had another kid.  He glanced over at Ruby, who was just staring at Amy.  It was hard to imagine what she was going though.  Amy wasn’t like a mistress, she’d been with Sam before he’d even met Ruby.  Maybe she was an ex-girlfriend or a friends that he’d experimented with, they’d been teenagers after all.

“Is Sam the kid’s dad?”  Ruby asked slowly with more composure than Dean suspected he’d be capable of.

“No, Jacob’s a purebreed.”  Amy shook her head.  “But it looked bad disappearing and then coming back to the pack with a pup- especially since I’d disappeared before, when I was visiting Sam at school.  I stayed with him a few times when I was in heat because I didn’t want the guys in my pack to… Nothing really went 100% to plan, so when I got pregnant I panicked.”

“Sam said you stopped talking to him all of a sudden.”

“I didn’t want him to know about the baby.”

“He would’ve tried to help.”  Ruby sighed knowing full well that Sam probably wouldn’t have even cared whether he was the biological father.

“He’d been talking about going to college for years.  I thought he might drop out.”  Amy had avoided meeting Dean’s eyes while explaining what had happened a decade earlier.  After a painful silence, she looked to Ruby & Dean with apprehension.  “Are you going to tell him?  I don’t want to mess up whatever is happening in his life, I swear.  I just thought he might help us, for old times sake.”

“I’m gonna tell him.”  Ruby said after a few moments of consideration.

“Rube-”  Dean started.

“He thought she was dead and now he what, thinks that she just left him?”  Ruby gestured at Amy, clearly upset at the idea.

“It’s simpler if she just left him.”

“Simple isn’t always better.  You know that, Dean.”  Ruby told him pointedly.  His stomach knotted and guilt flared in him on so many different fronts that he didn’t know how to respond.  “I’m not gonna just go along, with me knowing about his ex & break up while he’s in the dark.  This whole thing probably already reopened an old wound, the least we can do is clean it up…  Anyway, he’s an adult- he’ll survive a little fresh heartbreak.”

“You're…”  Amy asked Ruby, realizing that she had some greater connection to Dean & Sam.

“I’m Sam’s wife.”  

“Oh god…”  Amy’s eyes widened in horror, then covered her face with her hands and recoiled into herself with visible embarrassment.  She shook her head a bit causing a few exhausted tears to fall to her lap.  “I’m so sorry.  I didn’t mean…”

Before Dean could figure out what she was doing Ruby stood up, walked over to Amy, then knelt down and hugged her.  He couldn’t remember seeing Ruby comfort someone outside of the family or coven before.  His assumption had been that Ruby would want as little to do with Amy as possible, but trying to reassure & console her was far from that.

“I’m not upset.  You tried to protect Sam a long time ago.  You’re trying to protect your family now.”  Ruby spoke in a very gentle voice, that reminded Dean of Kay’s mom.  “If you really want to go to that island, we’re gonna get you there, and I’m gonna do everything I can to keep you & your son safe.  I promise.”

“I know you’re scared, but you just got a promise from one of the most politically powerful demons in existence.”  Dean explained the gravity of Ruby’s statement.  “You’re gonna have a lot of people in the shadows ready to help if you need it.”

“You’re a demon?”  Amy stared at Ruby, startled that she was being embraced by hellspawn.

“And you’re a kitsune- I guess Sam has a thing for women that can dismember him.”  Ruby observed, earning a weak chuckle from Amy.  “Drink your coffee and rest for a few minutes.  I’ll go get your travel arranged- if you want to talk to Sam-”

“No.”  Amy quickly replied, then added.  “Not yet, maybe when things are simpler, but it’s too much right now.”

“Okay.  I’ll be back in just a minute.”  Ruby said, then disappeared.

“Is Sam happy?”  Amy asked Dean after a few seconds of quietly looking at her cup of coffee.

“Yeah, he is.”  He could see the relief on her face, despite the faint longing in her voice.  “He has three kids.  The oldest is about your son’s age- he’s adopted-”

“We should set up a play date.”  Amy joked.  

“I’m sure they’d be friends.”  Dean smiled sadly.

“Another time maybe.”


	7. The Little Prince

“Come in.”

Kay was standing beside the desk in the private quarters that she kept in Hell.  She almost never used her quarters because she found sleeping in Hell too difficult and she always had plenty of work to do.  The only time she ever went in there was to be alone, which was undoubtedly why Joseba looked thoroughly confused to have been invited in out of the blue.  He entered cautiously, but not meekly- never meekly.

“Shut the door.”  She instructed.

“Yes, ma’am.”  He closed the door, then stood at casual attention.

She stared at him for a moment, studying him.  His manifested appearance in Hell alluded to the man he’d been millennia ago, but with several distinctly Abyssal features.  He tended to average just under seven feet tall with olive skin instead of the glass or stone shells that were popular with many demons.  His hair & eyes were black.  A pair of large black horns protruded from just behind his hairline- combined with his muscular body, it reminded her of a minotaur without the bull’s face.

“I need you to be honest with me-  I won’t be offended if the answer is no.”  She reassured him.  “Do you want to have sex with me?”

She could sense him mentally tripping over the question.  He was eager, worried, confused, skeptical, aroused, anxious- all at once.  It took him several seconds to decide how to respond.  All the while Kay watched him with a neutral expression, intentionally pushing him in a whole new way to see if he’d break.  But he didn’t let her down- if there was one thing Joseba was, it was reliable.

“Yes, ma’am.”  The corner of his mouth curled upward.  “Very much so actually.”

“Here’s the situation.”  Kay spoke with her normal commanding presence.  She needed to maintain her dominance over him and, as an added perk, she’d observed long ago that it seemed to turn him on.  “I need to get pregnant and I believe that a Knight would help me produce a strong heir while reinforcing stability in the realm.  I’d prefer that you be the one to get me pregnant.”

“You’d…”  Joseba hesitated, suddenly being asked to participate in something much larger than casual sex.  “I don’t know anything about children.”

“I’m not asking you to be a dad to the child- I actually don’t want you to be overly involved in the child’s upbringing & life.  This isn’t you getting a place in the monarchy or special say in anything really.  I don’t even want anyone to know you’re the donor-parent.”  Kay laid it out for him in the coldest terms to set his expectations early.  “I want us to have a secret sexual relationship in which you will occasionally wear an optimal meatsuit.  Are you interested?”

“Optimal?”

“A body you’d be proud to wear in all respects.  Strong, smart, healthy, virile- and someone you feel comfortable in because if you think I’m demanding during combat you have no idea.”  She could sense his lust flare.  “I’m used to rougher sex than most people have, lasting for much longer.  And you won’t finish until I tell you to finish.”

“When do we start?”

“Go find a body.”  Kay instructed as she picked up a fertility elixir from the desk and started drinking it.

* * *

It had taken longer than Kay had hoped for her to get pregnant- or at least she was pretty sure she was pregnant.  The truth was that her divination spell had been a little hard to read, which wasn’t really surprising.  If she was pregnant it was only by a matter of days.  Every time she’d had sex with Joseba while he was in his meatsuit, she would perform the spell for several days after.  She wanted to get a jump on the pregnancy as soon as possible in order to enact the second part of her plan.  So even with the possibility that it was a false positive, she decided to proceed.

She called a gathering of all the Knights of Hell that she was on friendly terms with.  The 31 Knights gathered in the throne room for her announcement.  Each of them was curious & excited by the unusual meeting- except for Joseba.  He wasn’t particularly thrilled by what was about to happen, but he understood why it was important- more importantly he understood that it wasn’t his place to have a say in the matter.

“Thank you all for coming.  After much deliberation I’ve decided that it would be in the interest of our people for me to have a child- and for that child’s other parent to be a Knight.”  A small murmur went out through the crowd.  “In order to maximize the protection for my child, I would like the donor-parent to remain uncertain.  I would like as many of you as possible to take a personal interest in the protection of my child.  As such, I invite any & all of you to have sex with me in order to achieve a pregnancy.”

She could feel the crowd split into several different groups.  Some Knights were shocked by the announcement.  Several were simply uninterested, though over twenty were interested- nearly a dozen were very interested.  She’d expected some volunteers, but she should’ve guessed that the species of Abyssal so closely tied to the origin of Hell would jump at the chance to fuck the First Light and potentially father an heir to the throne.  Back in her old timeline she’d had some sexual adventures, but she was facing having sex with 22 people in relatively close succession in order to obscure the actual date & source of conception.

“In the interest of ambiguity of the donor-parent, I’ve decided that any Knight who would like to participate must wear a healthy & prime specimen meatsuit of Bantu ethnicity.”  She instructed in order to be consistent with the meatsuit Joseba had used.  Ideally every Knight would look at the child and not be able to tell if against 22:1 odds the child was theirs.  Having some physical uniformity to the physiological part of the equation went a long way.  “Lastly, with the exception of attending meetings of the High Council, I will be naked in my personal quarters for the next week.  Dismissed.”

Kay stood up, walked straight down the center of the hall, and out the door back to her quarters.  She’d barely left the room before she sensed a dozen Knights travel to Earth in search of an appropriate body.

* * *

Whether or not she’d been pregnant at the beginning of the week of relentless sex, she was confirmed pregnant by Morrison at the end of it.  Regardless, in her mind she assumed that Joseba was the actual donor-parent, though she wasn’t quite sure why it mattered to her.  Hopefully some of his admirable qualities would somehow find their way into her child, but she expected the child to be fine either way.

She could detect a little frustration on Joseba’s part throughout the week of sex.  On more than one occasion he’d come to her quarters to find a queue.  He stood around watching several of his friends & fellow Knights fuck her until she couldn’t walk, while she was potentially carrying his child.  Despite his annoyance at the situation, he didn’t show it and took several turns at her in order to establish some known basis for being the donor-parent.

As the pregnancy progressed, all of the Knights that had joined in the week drifted by the throne room periodically to check on her & the baby.  It was actually rather endearing when she thought about it.  She had 22 Knights, the most terrifying creatures in Hell, all ready to go with her to a lamaze class.  To her relief the Knights that were possible donor-parents didn’t seem jealous of each other, if anything they were closer for having the shared personal interest in the child.

Kay & Joseba continued their secret rendezvous throughout the pregnancy.  Though Joseba had to stop using a vessel for fear of leaving physical evidence that might be found during one of Morrison’s semi-weekly exams.  He also insisted on having gentler sex when she entered her third trimester.  Kay agreed that it was probably for the best, but she still held him to her high standards of performance.

She hated the last two months of the pregnancy.  The only thing that would alleviate her back pain and random discomforts was sitting on her throne.  When she was on the Seat it almost felt like Hell itself was trying to soothe her.  Part of her wondered whether sitting on the Seat was affecting the baby, she could feel Hell’s tingling power radiate through her crotch & back into her belly, but she was beyond pulling punches on the Abyssal aspect of the child.  It would be at least ¾ Abyssal, conceived in Hell, & nurtured by Hell.

She gave birth in Hell, trying to get whatever advantages the environment might provide her.  Her mom had told her that Sa’dah’s birth had been the easiest by far.  Kay found the labor to be an ordeal, but manageable and shorter than it likely would’ve been on Earth.  Throughout labor Joseba had hovered down the hallway, but didn’t risk overstepping by trying to get in to see her.  Ruby had been stuck in a meeting on Earth and hadn’t been able to make it down in time to be there to help her.  At one point she nearly cried at the thought that Sam couldn’t be there for her either.  Despite the lack of emotional support, she gave birth in just over four hours.  It was exhausting & uncomfortable in every way possible, but when she saw her son she understood it could’ve been much worse.

Her son had light brown skin, intensely dark brown eyes & her dimples.  Two pairs of small black horns were on his forehead just inside his short frizzy black hair.  Starting at the base of his neck a ridge of black spikes that matched his horns ran down his spine to his tailbone.  His light brown skin had irregular patches where it abruptly darkened, fading into black, with the center turning just a bit red.

After a few minutes of Morrison & the other aides checking on her & the baby, she excused everyone.  She laid in her bed, staring at her son.  He wasn’t the product of some loving relationship.  He was the product of many tactical decisions.  No more than an hour old and countless expectations were being placed on him.  It wasn’t fair- but she knew perfectly well that life wasn’t fair.  She’d grown up with the weight of the realm ready to rest on her and any kid she’d have would be the same way.  It was just the reality of the situation and in a wholly unexpected moment it broke her heart.  She cried at the realization that she loved him- she hadn’t expected to love her baby.

In the whirlwind of emotions, she was struck by how she missed Kit.  He’d been the closest thing she’d ever had to a boyfriend and he’d been the only person that she’d actually wanted to have a child with.  One of the times she’d gotten pregnant the two of them had joked about keeping it, but they didn’t even get a chance to have a serious conversation about it before she’d miscarried.  But he was dead and everything was different.  She had different people in her life to provide her support- and one in particular who needed her support.

She dragged her fingertips along her son’s chest.  He nestled into her more, then held onto one of her fingers.

“I know it seems like it’s just you & me, but I promise we’re gonna be okay.  We’ve got help.”

* * *

Sam quickly helped Kay with her baby bag as he held the door to his family’s cabin open for her.  She carefully maneuvered the baby carrier into living room, then took a seat on the couch next to Ruby, who was nursing the five week old Anansi.  Dylaniel leaned against the dining table, ready to move forward to see the newest member of the family.  Dean was sitting on the floor play with Kaylee while Tom nervously hovered, eager to help however he could.

Kay pulled back the top of the baby carrier and lifted out her two day old son.  In order to make it more comfortable for all parties involved, a foam pillow shaped to accommodate the spikes on the baby’s back had been positioned below him.  She collected the pillow along with him in order to make it easier to hold him.  He was wrapped in a soft black blanket that was embroidered with the crimson blossoms of Hell.

“This is Malek- or Mal for short.”  She showed him off to the family.  Everyone silently stared at him for several awkward seconds.  She didn’t blame them for being shocked, aside from Dylaniel, none of them had ever seen an inhuman looking baby before.

“Your kid has horns.”  Dean observed quietly.  “Not judging- just not used to seeing them on a kid.”

“Sam & Ruby have more kids with horns than me.”  Kay said a little defensively.  “It’s just that mine maybe can’t put his away.”

“He’s cute.”  Sam offered a smile, then sat down on the armchair closest to Kay.  “Can I hold him?”

“Of course.”  Kay spoke through some tightness in her throat.  She handed Malek to Sam, taking care to make both of them comfortable.  “You just have to watch the spikes.  They aren’t sharp yet, but it can hurt if you have one pressing on your arm for a half hour.”

“We’re fine.”  Sam gently rocked the newborn.  Malek yawned and stretched.  “Hello, Mal.  It’s nice to meet you.  I’m Sam, your uncle.”

“Malek, a little right on the nose there.”  Ruby told Kay, then explained for the others.  “It means king.”

“I like it.”  Sam assured Kay.

“Thanks.”  Kay rubbed the back of her neck anxiously.  “I have a big favor to ask of everyone.  I want him to have a childhood outside of the Citadel, like I did.  I want him to have a connection with Earth.  Can I bring him to visit pretty often?”

“Of course.”  Sam said.  “And we can babysit if you’re too busy to come up too.”

“I would also be willing to help.  Especially if he’s less aggressively clingy than someone.”  Dylaniel said nodding to Kaylee.

“She’s a snuggler.”  Ruby agreed.

“And I suspect that there are several people in this room that would happily be on the receiving end of that,”  Dylaniel acknowledged.  “but I’d rather take my chances with the spiky tabula rasa.”

“You always did like the Badlands.”  Kay told her cousin, grateful for his sometimes unconventional preferences.

“I’d have a hell of a time explaining him to J, but if I can babysit somewhere else or at the bunker I’ll try to be available too.”  Dean offered.

“One question, if he’s gonna be in Hell most of the time he’ll be an adult in about two months.”  Ruby pointed out.

“I had Morrison give him a variant on the non-aging spell that I have.  Mal should age consistently with Earth’s time, unless I tweak it.”  Kay explained.

“Damn, I was hoping we could at least get one kid’s puberty down to just a few weeks long.”  Ruby joked.

“Before you all start jumping at babysitting for me,”  Kay hesitated to say anything that might make them revoke their offers.  “I guess it goes without saying, but- he’s a baby and all, but he’s half Knight.  I’m not sure what to expect.”

“How bad could it be?”  Sam asked while gently bouncing the dozing Malek.

“In this family, never ask a question like that.”


	8. Playdate 2.0

3/2/2012

“Do you ever wonder what they say about us?”  Dean asked after he took a hit from his vaporizer.  

Sam gave his brother a sidelong glance, then turned his attention back to Kaylee, Anansi, & Malek.  Sam had asked Dean to help him watch the children since Malek was spending the day topside.  Two infants was a handful, three was an accident waiting to happen.  The brothers had settled on clearing the living room floor and piling some toy in the middle, creating a play area that they could flank.

Kaylee was a very curious & hands on two year old.  Whether it was everyone’s imagination or not, the general impression was that she emulated Kay & Ruby’s leadership traits.  She liked to oversee random household procedures and helped enable Anansi & Malek as much as possible.  Her generosity toward the two younger relatives was shaping up to make her the leader of a very adorable gang- once all its members could walk.

At seven & six months old respectively, Anansi & Malek spent their time diligently learning through playing.  They could both crawl well enough to get around and babbled what might become first words before too long.  Despite not being able to talk, Anansi seemed to understand a few words & phrases beyond his own name and Malek could understand a speaker’s tone of voice.

“Kaylee can’t put a whole sentence together and the others aren’t even a year old.  I think you need to talk to your dealer.”  Sam teased.

“Not them.”  Dean gestured to the kids.

“Do I ever wondered what who says about us?”

“The people who know about us.”

“That’s not making it any clearer.”  Sam extended his hand.  “Give me your vape.  You’re way too high to be babysitting.”

“I’m not that high.”  Dean argued, but he tossed over the vaporizer.  “I mean- the angels, the demons, even nutjobs with their ear to the ground.  Weren’t we supposed to destroy the world and instead nothing.  You disappeared.  I all but disappeared.”

“I don’t like to think about it too much.”  Sam admitted.  “I wish more people thought I was dead.”

“You need a new persona, get you back in the world.  You might need a disguise spell or something- those things gotta exist, right?”

“I have no idea.”  Sam said as he leaned forward and repositioned Anansi’s leg so that he wasn’t sitting on it awkwardly.  “I don’t have time to sneak back into the world yet.”

“I guess you don’t have to go very far to get a grateful mob.”  Dean acknowledged.

“You miss the glory days?”  Sam peeked over at Dean for signs that he might be growing restless in his newly quiet life.

“Do I miss the dislocated joints, having to pop two Vicodin just to survive sitting in the car for a few hours, watching you get beat up, worrying that someday-”  Dean stopped himself, then shook his head.  “I don’t miss that at all, but helping people…”

“You help people.”

“I guess.”  Dean sighed.  “I haven’t gone hunting in… well, since before Ani was born.  It’s weird, like- I used to get this feeling from hunting, not the adrenaline, but the accomplishment.  I thought I’d lose that if I didn’t hunt, and maybe I don’t feel exactly proud of the mundane stuff, not in the same way… I don’t know… maybe I don’t need to do the big important things anymore.”

“We’ve still got important things, they’re just small and lack fine motor skills.”  Sam smiled at his kids, then looked to Dean.  “You think you might ever have a kid?”

“Dyl would love that.”  Dean commented, then shrugged.  “Eh, maybe not- what’s Michael’s line matter with the asshole in prison and the apocalypse out of the way?”

“Putting aside the whole grace-vessel thing…”  Sam prodded.

Dean watched as Kaylee diligently dug through the toys trying to find the best ones to give Anansi & Malek.  After delivering the toys, she hugged Malek, carefully avoiding his horns & spikes in order to convey the affection.  Then she sat down to play with the toy tiger Dean had given her for her first birthday.  The fact that she played with it so much warmed his heart and somehow, in that moment, pained him a bit at the same time.

“I’m sure I’d like having a kid.  The other me- I could see how much Dyl meant to him.”  Dean rubbed the back of his neck.  “I don’t really know if that’s in the cards right now.  I’m guessing Jeremy doesn’t have a female vessel he can just slip into.”

“Sounds like you two are getting pretty serious?”  

Sam decided not to pressed the kid angle and instead jumped at the opening to talk about Dean’s boyfriend, who no one in the family had actually met.  As far as Sam knew, he was the only person in the family that hadn’t done some sort of background check on the guy- granted that was partially because the results of everyone’s efforts ended up finding their way to Sam over a few beers.  The consensus was that Jeremy was a diabetic, classic film nerd, who overwithheld on his taxes, and probably would’ve own a cat if not for Dean being allergic.  A pleasant, but not exciting man.

“We’re slow moving.”  Dean answered ambiguously.  “But yeah, things seem pretty stable.”

“When are you going to tell him?”

“I’m not sure how to.”  Dean confessed.  “We’ve been dating for almost two years.  At first I wasn’t telling him because I didn’t know him.  Now I’m just like how do you tell someone you’ve been lying to them for two years?”

“Just start with the less crazy stuff and feel it out.”  Sam suggested.  “Maybe put the time travel at the end.  He knows what a hunter is-”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”  Sam stared at Dean in disbelief.  “How could he not know about hunters?”

“He’s somewhere between skeptical & agnostic about a lot of this stuff.  He’s never seen any of it firsthand or had it effect him.  People like simple- it’s easier to think it’s all nutjob cults and horror movie publicity stunts.”  Dean’s face dimmed subtly.  “He likes simple.”

“You think it’d be too much for him?”

“To believe or to put up with?”  Dean groaned.  “I’m not neck deep in the action anymore, but I’ve got a lot of strings attached.”

“All relationships have their issues.”  Sam offered.  “Anyway, I want to meet him, so get over your anxiety already.”

“Are you gonna ‘What are your intentions?’ him?”  Dean smiled at the mental image.

“If I don’t who will?”  Sam joked.

“Dyl, 100% Dyl.”  Dean answered confidently.

“Oh God,”  Sam nodded.  “Dyl really might interrogate the guy.”

“Full on waterboarding.”

Malek very carefully picked up a soft plastic toy in the shape of a lion, then waved it around a little.  Sam & Dean both watched him nervously and Sam held up his hand, ready to telekinetically grab any potential projectile.  Instead of throwing the toy, Malek squeezed it.  There was a loud pop as the back of the lion’s head burst.  Kaylee & Anansi both stared in mild alarm, but Malek started whimpering.

“Shit, I thought we’d poked holes in all the hollow toys.”  Sam muttered as he scooped up Malek.  He started bouncing the infant on his knee as a distraction, then spoke to him in a soft reassuring voice.  “It’s okay, Mal.  Just try to be gentle.”

“Let me get that.”  Dean offered.  He picked up a turtle plushie and shook it in front of Malek.  “Come on, Mal.  Check out this awesome fuzzy turtle.”

Malek stared at the turtle for a few seconds before dropping the lion and accepting the replacement.  Dean picked up the lion, then ran his thumb over the broken edge of the rupture.

“Is it sharp?”

“Not really.”  Dean shrugged.  “Mark another one for his toy kill count.”

“Do you think you’d ever babysit Mal alone?”  Sam asked Dean while patting Malek’s head in reassurance.

Over the last few months, the family had noticed that Malek’s physical strength had increased beyond that of a normal baby- or even just a human.  The discovery was alarming, but not wholly unexpected considering who his father was.  They all strived to teach Malek finesse, which had had mixed results.  Sam & Kay had the easiest time handling him since they could use telekinesis to prevent him from breaking any of their bones.  Ruby didn’t have a great way of preventing the damage, but she didn’t have as much attachment to her meatsuit.  Similarly, Dylaniel had received several accidentally hits that he healed before they could start bruising.  Luckily, so far Malek had not manifested the Knight’s trait of inflicting damage that was immune to angelic healing, though they were all vigilant.  

Then there was Dean.  Despite genuinely adoring Malek, Dean had trouble getting hands on with him.  He didn’t have a way of preventing or healing any injuries the kid might cause.  Whenever he held Malek, he tried to make sure the infant was clutching a toy and aimed away from him.  Everyone understood Dean’s caution, though Malek was beginning to get to the age when he’d start internalizing subtle things like the fact that his uncle Dean was visibly uncomfortable interacting with him.

“Kaylee or Ani I could probably handle, but…”  Dean hesitated.  “I’m not sure how to stop a baby that can break all the bones in my hand.”

“He’s actually getting pretty good about not hurting people.”  Sam assured as he released Malek back into the play area.  “It’s just that objects don’t say ‘ow’ before they snap.”

Malek crawled back over to Anansi & Kaylee.  Anansi picked up a fuzzy pink bunny toy and held it to the slightly younger Malek.  Malek looked between his turtle & the pink bunny, then dropped the turtle for the bunny.  He cooed a little as he hugged the bunny.

“Hell’s gonna be so pissed to find out their future king is such a softy.  You’re a bad influence on him.”  Dean told Sam as he got up, then walked to the kitchen.  “You want a beer?”

“Sure.”  

“Dammit.”  Dean called from the kitchen a few seconds later.  “One foamed over.  Do you have a towel or something?”

“Check on the counter by the dishrack.”  Sam spared a glance at the kitchen to make sure Dean was on the right track.  “Yeah, those.”

When Sam looked back to the kids he saw that they were all still seated where they’d been, but Anansi was playing with Dean’s cell phone.  With Malek being capable of snapping the metal & glass device in half, the phone was potentially dangerous in their hands.

“Sorry Ani, but that’s not a toy.”  Sam said as he took the phone from his son, then moved it back to where Dean had been sitting, out of the baby’s reach.

“Here’s what’s left of your beer.”  Dean said as he returned.

Sam turned to collect the bottle from Dean, but Dean was too distracted by something to complete the handoff.  Sam looked to what had caught his brother’s attention.  The cell phone was slowly sliding across the floor in diminutive jerks toward Anansi, who had his arms extended, trying to grab it.  

“Ani?  Stop.”  Sam instructed.  Anansi looked up at his dad and the phone stopped moving.

“No fucking way.”  Dean exhaled.

“The kids aren’t supposed to get powers like this until they’re four or five years old.”  Sam muttered in disbelief.

“I think you need to invest in some heavier duty baby proofing.”

“Jesus Christ.  Hey, Tommy.”  Sam shouted to Tom, who was studying in his bedroom. 

“What?”  The eight year old asked, while coming down the hall to see what was going on.

“Get your sister, take her to Belda’s.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ll explain later, just go.”

Tom shrugged, took Kaylee’s hand and started walking her out the door.  Kaylee waved goodbye to her little brother & cousin as she was escorted out of the cabin.  With the infants no longer outnumbering him & Dean, Sam took out his phone and called Ruby.  He put the call on speaker phone, then watched Anansi like a hawk for the twenty seconds or so that it took for the call to go through to Hell.  

“Nobody’s hurt, but Ani just used telekinesis.”  Sam said as soon as the line clicked over.

“But he’s a baby.”  Ruby replied uncertainly.

“I just saw it.”

“I don’t understand… it just…”  Ruby almost growled.  “I’m gonna fucking kill Morrison.  One of the prenatal supplements I took was to reduce fatigue with powers.  It must’ve just made it easier for him in general.”

“Is there…”  Sam hesitated.  “is there a way to undo it?  Just temporarily make it so he can’t pull everything off the walls?”

“That’d take impairing parts of his brain.”  Ruby warned.  “He could get serious developmental damage.”

Sam picked up Anansi, who hugged his dad back.  He wasn’t sure how to handle a situation like this.  Malek had abilities that made him potentially dangerous, but at least the implications of physical strength were predictable.  With something like telekinesis, Anansi could do any number of things, including getting access to hazardous objects.  And that wasn’t even counting the possibility that the infant could accidentally use the First Light.

“What about an anti-magic spell on the house?”  Sam suggested.

“Tommy’ll riot and we’ll end up with three kids under the age of five.”  Ruby replied.  “But it’s a backup plan.”

Malek crawled toward Sam, trying to get to his playmate, but Dean picked him up before he could start climbing up Sam.  Dean held Malek in such a way as to keep the babies from looking at each other, lest they try to interact.  

“We need to figure out a way to deal with this before he hurts himself or someone else.”  Sam said while moving to prevent Anansi from seeing Dean & Malek.  He didn’t know how well Anansi understood object permanence yet, but he hoped that out of sight still meant out of mind.

“Can you overpower him?”  Ruby asked.

“I haven’t tried, but probably.  He was struggling to move Dean’s cell.”

“Just keep an eye on him and I’ll see what R&D comes up with.”

“Try to hurry, the number of infants capable of destroying the house just doubled.”

Sam hung up the phone, then simply held Anansi close for a long while.  He shared a silent, worried glance with Dean- neither of them knew what to say.  Anansi made a little sigh of contentment as he hugged Sam back.  Sam’s stomach knotted at the juxtaposition of such an innocent child & such a problematic power.  He rocked his son gently while making soothing noises and patting Anansi’s back.

“Mal, gentle.”  Dean warned when Malek gripped his thumb & index finger.  “That’s good.”

“You want to switch?”

“No, we’re okay.  Right, Mal?”  Malek looked up at him and smiled.  Dean stared at Sam with visible concern.  “You okay?”

“No.”

The brothers sat quietly for several seconds before Dean huffed a small laugh, causing Sam to raise an eyebrow.

“Just imagine when they start roughhousing.”  Dean explained what had amused him.

“You sure you don’t want in on this parenthood thing?”  Sam smiled halfheartedly.

“Baby battle royale.”  Dean shook his head, then muttered.  “My baby would win.”

“Seriously?”  Sam’s voice was a bit lighter, pulling from the worried thoughts by the absurd distraction.  “Against telekinesis & super strength?”

“My baby could bless weapons.”

“You were a thirty year old man and you couldn’t bless weapons.”

“Just think about Dyl, but tiny- a tiny, rosy cheeked killing machine.”

“I hate to break this to you, but I’m guessing Dyl gets a good amount of his gusto from being a nephilim.”  Sam countered.  “Unless you’re planning on making some pretty big lifestyle changes, your baby’s going to be human.”

“Batman’s human.”

“Yes, batman is human.”  Sam conceded the point.

Ruby & Kay appeared by the front door.  Both Sam & Dean let out sighs of relief at the sight of reinforcements.  Kay quickly took Malek off Dean’s hands as Ruby rushed over to Sam & Anansi.

“Please tell me you’ve got something.”  Sam greeted her.

“Warded wristbands.”  Ruby held up two little strips of black fabric.  “These should work until he figures out how to undo buttons.”

“I guess they don’t make handcuffs in infant sizes.”  Dean joked, earning a less than delighted expression from Sam.

Sam held Anansi while Ruby started putting the first wristband on their son.  As soon as both buttons on the inch wide strip of cloth had been buttoned Anansi started fidgeting & huffing.  He flailed his other arm, causing a pile of books several feet away to tip off the edge of a side table.

“You’re okay, Ani.”  Sam reassured as Ruby finished putting on the second band.  Once it was on Anansi looked around the room, stretched his arms at various objects, then began crying.  Ruby picked him up and held him to her chest.

“Don’t cry, sweetie.”  She said in a delicate voice while rocking gently from side to side.  “It’s just for a little bit.  We just want you to be safe.”

“Alex would get uncomfortable if there was anti-magic warding.”  Kay suggested as a comparison.  “He said it made the colors dull & the Earth didn’t hum- things like that.  He seemed less energetic, but I don’t think it was actually painful- Whether this is like that, I don’t know.”

“Does it feel weird, Ani?”  Ruby whispered, then kissed the top of his head.  After a minute his crying faded into huffing & pouting.  Before too long he started to blink slower & slower until he fell asleep in Ruby’s arms.

“You two,”  Kay nodded to Sam & Ruby.  “are completely fucked.”


	9. Prompt: Kaylee's First Steps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anonymous asked:  
> I THINK THIS CALLS FOR MORE BABY KAYLEE MOMENTS. HOW ABOUT HER LEARNING TO WALK OR SOMETING. OR just waking her parents up in the middle of the night, and they have a moment or something

10/13/2010

Sam was lying on his back on the living room floor while reading a history of the Maji.  Kaylee sat next to him, playing with a toy dragon and occasionally commenting with soft babbling.  In order to expose Kaylee to as much vocabulary as possible, Sam had taken to just reading whatever he was studying aloud.  After growing bored with her dragon, she crawled over to his chest and grabbed onto his shirt.  

“Following the slaying of Feldeaux in the War of Infinite Souls-”  Sam was interrupted by Ruby chuckling in the kitchen as she finished assembling herself a bowl of ice cream.  “Okay, what am I missing?”

“That war was such a joke.  ‘Infinite Souls’- that's just somebody trying to sound like they're really good at their job.  More like the War of Abusing Roundoff Errors.”  Ruby strolled over, returning to the couch where she'd been prior to grabbing a snack.  She placed the bowl down on a side table and lounged back to continue watching Kaylee play.

Kaylee carefully pulled herself up into a kneeling positions, so that she could play with the buttons on Sam’s shirt.  They both watched her study the mechanism for several seconds.  It wouldn't have surprised either of them if she figured out how to undo a button.  Every day she was discovering something new- that was one of the things Sam enjoyed most about staying home with her.  He loved seeing her experiment and learn new things.  He couldn't wait until she was talking, then he could tell her so much.  But for now her interactions with the world were much more physical & tactile.

“Please don't tug those.”  Sam told her while peeking down below the tablet.  She didn't even look at him, instead opting to giggle as she kept yanking.  

“Kaylee, don't tear your dad's shirt.”  Ruby casually warned, though she didn't move to get up.  She’d had a long shift downstairs and needed a minute to just relax on the couch.

“That's mom’s job.”  Sam agreed, then held his right hand out to his daughter.  Excited for the attention she gripped his fingers and wobbled slightly as she pulled herself into a standing position.  “That's a good girl, keep working on those pull ups.”

“Your hand okay?  I can come get her.”

Sam had just started physical therapy after the second surgery on his right arm a week earlier.  He still had a little pain, though he knew that was part of the healing process.  In theory he'd have better functionality once he started exercising a bit more, but for the moment he was struggling with some of the basics.  Luckily, he was acting more as an object for Kaylee to hold onto rather than some other role that would require manual dexterity.

“Maybe in a minute.”  Sam acknowledged his limitations, but he enjoyed both holding Kaylee's hand and watching her stand up.  She wore a purple t-shirt with a smiling devil face emoji on it, dark red pants, & tiny black & white booties meant to look like sneakers.  Standing up almost made her look like a toddler.  The sight of her achieving another goal was worth a little discomfort.  “We’re exercising our muscles.”

“Just put down the Abyssal ereader before you start doing baby bench presses.”  Ruby rolled over onto her side so that she was facing Sam & Kaylee.  “Why Kaylee, you're looking particularly on top of shit today.  I think we're gonna have to warn Kay she's about ten inches & three developmental milestones away from having a teeny doppelgänger.”

Kaylee turned to look at her mom, then took a cautious step.  She looked back at her dad, not entirely prepared to let go of his hand.  After glancing back at Ruby she let go of Sam.  Sam moved to catch her as her little legs wobbled, but she didn't fall down.  Instead she planted a foot in front of her, then another.  Her steps were chaotic, drifting hastily to the left in an attempt not to fall down.  Sam scrambled to catch her before she hit the ground, but Ruby was already on it.

Ruby teleported onto the hardwood floor at just the right & wrong time.  She caught Kaylee, but at the same moment Sam had also moved to catch their daughter.  Sam & Ruby collided awkwardly, both diving for the same goal.  Ruby's knee caught him hard in the crotch, making him hunch forward, unintentionally head butting Ruby in the face.  Both of them laid on the floor, side by side, clutching their injuries.  Kaylee was giggling, still wrapped in Ruby's arms, resting safely atop both parents.

“I think she can walk.”  Ruby said as she wiped away blood from her broken nose.

“Don't write this in the baby book.”  Sam groaned.  

Kaylee crawled over her parents’ chests in order to give them each a kiss on the cheek before laying down perpendicularly across both of them.  Sam glanced over at Ruby, who was equally resigned to her fate.  While Sam & Ruby were staring at each other a tiny hand started poking Sam's chin relentlessly.

“She might not be queen of Hell, but she definitely rules this house.”  Ruby observed.

“To be fair-”  Sam started to rationalize their lack of control over the current situation, but he stopped when he felt a tugging sensation.  He glanced down in time to see Kaylee pull one of the buttons off his shirt.  “Fuck it.  I'll teach her life lessons after my balls stop aching.”

“Can you telekinesis over a few bags of frozen peas?”  Ruby asked while cracking her nose back into proper alignment.

Sam reached toward the kitchen, then tried to concentrate.  He managed to get the freezer door open, but Kaylee grabbed for his extended & still tender wrist.  He reflexively pulled his arm out of her grasp in order to prevent her from hurting him, but in the process he accidentally telekinetically tore open half a dozen bags of frozen vegetables.  Sam let out a long sigh as they listened to hundreds of small, soon to be thawing pieces of produce pour onto their floor.  Ruby rested her head on Sam's shoulder as she started laughing uncontrollably through her bloody nose.  He gave her a kiss on her forehead while running his fingers through Kaylee's soft hair.

“What do you want to bet the next fifteen minutes is gonna be a huge setback in teaching her not to eat things off the ground?”  Ruby mused when she finally caught her breath.

“This is why we can't have nice things.”

“Are you kidding?  We have the best things.”


	10. Nosce te ipsum. Nosce hostem tuum.

02/10/2012

Sam watched Kaylee & Anansi napping on Ruby’s side of the queen size bed.  The pair were snuggled up under a quilt Jody had made for Kaylee’s first birthday.  As she dozed, Kaylee gently hugged her six month old little brother protectively.  Sam suspected that he could sit there on the bed watching them all day long.  

“I hadn’t expected to be so fond of them.”

Sam looked up at the voice to see himself leaning against the far bedroom wall.  The other him nearly smiled at the infants.  Sam wanted to confront the imposter, but deep down he knew that it would just make the situation worse somehow, so he chose to ignore him instead.

“Do you think they’re safe?”  The other Sam asked, then waited a few seconds to see if he would reply before continuing.  “There’s a guaranteed way to protect them.  To keep them safe from the humans & the angels-”

“You’re not real.  You’re just my fear.”  Sam said to himself… though he wasn’t sure which himself exactly.

“How’s the search for my tablet coming?”  The imposter asked pointedly, earning a glare & silence from Sam.  “In a way I suppose it’s your tablet too… or maybe you’d rather have the Demon Tablet?  You & your children stand to benefit from both, if you know how to use them.”

“This is speculation.  I’m making stuff up.”  Sam rejected the possibility.

“From where I’m standing you don’t look too sure about that.”  The other him commented.  “Go ahead, ask me a question that you don’t know the answer to.”

“No, I’m not playing that game.”

“Because you’re scared I’ll know the answer?  Otherwise what’s the harm?”

“I’m not going to indulge my delusions.”  Sam said louder with more conviction.

“It feels like we’ve already crossed that bridge.”  The imposter gestured at the fact that they were having a conversation.  Sam felt himself falter, unsure how to regain his mental footing.

“I’m talking to myself.”  Sam had to stop himself from saying ‘not to you.’  “People talk to themselves to work through things all the time.”

“Actually, now that I think of it, what does it say about you if I really am part of your mind?”  The imposter grinned at the novel thought.  “Maybe deep down you do want to break your confinement?  You know that’s what they’ve done to you.  Your prison might be nicer than most-”

“I’m happy.”  Sam looked away from the man- creature- figment.  He tried to focus on his kids, sleeping peacefully beside him.

“But you aren’t free.  You were coerced into handing over your potential & so much of your power.  You deserve more.  Your family deserves more.”  The other him pressed.  “Heaven is scared of you because they know, if you wanted, no one could stop you-”

“Leave.  Now.”  Sam snapped.  He could deal with the normal coaxing, but being encouraged to do what undoubtedly called for violence-  He was done with fighting.

“You’re too young & sensitive.”  The imposter studied him with a disconcerting intensity.  “You barely know I’m real, don’t you?”

“To me, you’re nothing.”  Sam summoned his courage.  “Cause all I have to do to stop you is say no.”

The imposter smiled & nodded at Sam in some morbid satisfaction before turning toward the door to the hallway.  He opened it to leave, then stopped for a second.

“I look forward to seeing what fictions you’ll craft to explain what just happened.  Until next time, Sam.”  He walked out, closing the door behind him.

* * *

Sam woke up in a cold sweat and immediately got out of bed.  He checked Anansi’s crib in their bedroom, then hurried to peek into Kaylee & Tom’s bedrooms.  Once he knew all the kids were safe, he ran his fingers through his hair while silently counting to ten.  Ruby wrapped a robe around herself while she walked out into the hall to check on him.

“Another nightmare?”  She whispered.

“I hope so.”  He sighed as she hugged him.

“You’re okay.  I’m okay.  The kids are okay.  We’re all okay.”  She repeated their little mantra before standing up on her tiptoes in order to kiss his forehead.

“Do you ever get scared?”

“Everyday.”  Ruby replied while glancing at Kaylee’s room, then looked back into Sam’s eyes.  “But then I remind myself that we have something that blows all our enemies out of the water.”

“Torpedoes?”  He joked halfheartedly.

“Close.  Each other.”  Ruby corrected with a sincerity that made Sam’s chest feel tight.  “Next time you see that asshole, tell him that if he wants you he’s gonna have to come through me.”


	11. The Job Offer

10/12/2011

Dean closed the hood on an aquamarine 1969 Mustang, then finished wiping some grease off his hands.  He was making a few notes to himself when he saw Tamara walk into the garage.  Despite being an old friend, the sight of her made him nervous.  Beyond being a registered hunter, it was common knowledge that she also worked for the Department of Extranatural & Planar Affairs.  He sighed, earning an apologetic head tilt from her.

“Be honest with me, do you think I should try to bribe you, fight you, or outrun you?”  Dean asked as he tossed his pen & clipboard onto a workbench.

“Tough call.”  Tamara leaned against the Mustang.  “Personally I’d rather you bribe me, but I don’t think we’re there yet.”

“Thank god, I don’t have any money.”  Dean walked over to the garage’s refrigerator.  “You want a beer?”

“I’d murder for one.”

“Not the word choice I’m most excited to hear right now.”  He glanced at her over the refrigerator door.

“Sorry, I’m not here to shake you down- not exactly.”  She shrugged, then accepted the beer bottle.  “I heard about your situation- I was one of the people DEPA talked to before they went after you.  Anyway, I want to help and I think I might be able to make it work.”

“I’m already not liking the sound of this.”  Dean checked the watch Ruby gave him to confirm that Tamara was the only person observing him at that moment.

“They’ll ease up on the leash if you help us out occasionally.”

“I’m retired.”

He may have stopped going on hunts since Anansi was born, but he hadn’t actually convinced himself that he was retired until the DEPA agents had confronted him ten days earlier.  There was something about having to give up almost all of his weapons & magical artifacts that made it different.  For the most part he was just a normal guy- maybe with some interesting stories to tell, but regardless it felt more real.  With the exception of briefly helping Amy get hooked up with Ruby, for the last week & a half, he’d been living a completely mundane life.  In some ways it was hard to give up the familiarity of the supernatural, and at the same time… living a double life had taken a lot of energy.

“I know this whole thing is screwing up your ability to see Sam.”  She said, hitting the problem right on the head.  He probably could’ve lived the quiet life under the watchful eye of the DEPA, except for not being able to freely contact his family.

“Sam’s dead.”

Tamara stared at him.  She almost certainly suspected that Sam was alive no matter what Dean claimed.  He didn’t care if she knew he was lying.  The story was that Sam was dead and he wasn’t going to do anything that might help that issue come up for debate.  Let everyone else in existence trying to find the truth on their own.

“I don’t want it to be like this between us.  You & Sam saved my life.  That means something to me, I’m not forgetting it.”  She assured him.

“I believe that, but I don’t trust them… so I don’t know if I can trust you.”  He replied, earning a disappointed nod acknowledging his concern.

“Fine.  Right now they’re monitoring all of your financials, your emails, your phones- including your boyfriend’s phone, and making a visual check every 48-72 hours.”  Tamara pulled a file folder out of her messenger bag and handed it to him.  “I’d appreciate it if you burnt those when you’re done with them.”

He skimmed through the the contents of the file on him.  There were photographs of him entering and leaving the house he was renting a room at and also at Jeremy’s apartment.  He quickly looked through trying to see if there were any pictures of him close to the bunker that might’ve been taken before he knew that the DEPA was watching him.  The transcripts from his phone calls didn’t have anything particularly incriminating.  There was one call to Dylaniel, but it wasn’t anything more than him canceling plans to get together for lunch.  He recognized one call from Shola, though he’d actually only been consulting her about the unenticing chore of writing an advanced healthcare directive.  The collection stopped just short of anything really incriminating, which might’ve been why the DEPA wasn’t looking at him as closely as he’d initially feared.

“They don’t have anything on me.”  Dean observed.

“Nothing recent, but there’s enough old evidence to whet their appetite.  They still are trying to sort out some FBI agents’ deaths.”

“Henriksen?”

“Sounds right.”

“Fuck.”  Dean groaned, then finished his beer and threw the bottle into a nearby recycling bin.

“I didn’t just come here to scare you.  I think I might be able to help.”  Tamara explained.  “The whole mentality is you’re with us or against us.  If they think they have power over you they don’t hold you as tight.  The amount of hoops you’d have to jump through being in the system isn’t nearly as bad-”

“You’re serious about trying to recruit me?”

“I’m not saying you become an agent or a registered hunter, but even just acting as a consultant- I’ve gotten two former network hunters in on the same deal.  Their outstanding warrants were canceled and they only get checked in on every six weeks.”

“I don’t want to work for the bad guys.”

“You’d be working for me.”

“Bad girl.”  He corrected.  “It’s too much.”

“If you’re one of mine I can tip you off about surveillance.”  She sweetened the pitch.  “I can tell you your openings for leaving town.  I can give you an excuse to keep up some abjuration & protection magic around you.”

It was tempting.  If he knew the protocol that was being used to monitor him, then he could sneak in visits to the camp without risking their exposure.  As things were, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to have complete confidence that he wasn’t risking his family with each contact.  Also, having the tools necessary to defend himself again would be a relief.  On more than one occasion he’d had nightmares about a revenge seeking vampire nest tracking him down while he was at Jeremy’s place.

“Jeremy doesn’t know I was a hunter.”  Dean sighed.  “Going back to it…”

“I’m not asking you to hunt with me- like I said, consultant.  You’ve seen stuff that no other hunters have.  Things are coming out of the woodwork bigger & badder than ever before.”  Tamara leaned in and lowered her voice.  “I know you have connections.  I want to be able to ask for help if we need it.”

“What would I have to do?”

“A couple times a month we’ll grab lunch, I’ll run some leads by you, and you tell me if anything rings a bell.  If something is extra unusual, I might take you on a field trip.”

“I’m not fighting.  I’m not getting hurt.”

There had been an incident over a year earlier involving a fight in a parking lot with a group of hecklers.  Jeremy wasn’t hurt and Dean had only suffered a few scrapes & bruises, but the experience had been something of a turning point in Dean’s life.  The encounter had upset Jeremy in a way that Dean had never really seen firsthand before.  Jeremy had asked him to just not risk violence, even with his pride on the line.  Dean had someone who stayed up at night worrying about him and he was gonna try like hell not to put Jeremy through the ordeal of him ending up in the hospital or worse.

“I wouldn’t ever turn down your help in a fight, but I don’t think I could even get approval for you to carry a lethal weapon while in the field.”  Tamara elaborated.

The thought of not having a deadly weapon didn’t bother him as much as it probably upset other people of the hunting persuasion.  He could easily make any weapon considerably more dangerous than normal.  The thing that actually made him anxious was the simple idea of ‘the field’.  There was no clear definition of what that meant and he was well aware that hunts often blurred the line between investigation & intervention.

“I stay the hell away from fighting.  My warrants disappear.  You give me as much freedom or intel as possible- And I want DEPA to pay for a life insurance policy for me.”

“Standard department issued policy is for $200,000.”

“Make it $500,000.”

“I know you’re worth every quid.”


	12. Dangerous Emotions

10/15/2011

Dylaniel was flying over the coast, admiring the tranquil Alaskan morning when he heard a prayer from Hael.  She wanted to meet with him, but was reluctant to travel to his home on the off chance that she might be followed.  After some thought, he suggested meeting for lunch at a brewery’s taproom he knew of near Oakland.

The taproom was on desecrated land and was owned & operated by Hell.  As far as anyone knew, Heaven wasn’t aware of its association, making the location nearly invisible to Heaven’s normal surveillance efforts.  The small restaurant was little more than one third of the brewery’s warehouse that had been blocked off for limited food & drink service.  Kay had taken him there for lunch once very shortly after the power plant incident.  He’d liked the fact that it didn’t have many patrons and most of them were demons or Hell affiliated.

“A Drakonic stout.”  Dylaniel ordered from the bartender as soon as he arrived.  The bartender began pouring a glass for him, but a server walked up and whispered something to her colleague.  The bartender stopped mid-pour, then turned to Dylaniel.

“We don’t serve angels.”  The bartender warned as he signaled for two other demons sitting at a nearby table to come over.  “Leave now or we’re gonna have a problem.”

“I’m not an angel.  I’m Dylaniel Winchester.”

“Is that supposed to mean something?”

“I’m the only person on this plane that’s killed an Archangel and I’m cousin to your queen.”  Dylaniel pointed to the bank of taps.  “Now finish pouring my beer.”

The bartender waved off the muscle, then finished topping off the glass.  Dylaniel appreciated the care that was taken to reduce the amount of head on the stout, though he couldn’t tell if that was a manifestation of fear or respect- with demons those two concepts often seemed to bleed together.  The bartender placed the glass on the bar and watched attentively as Dylaniel sipped it.

“Can I get you anything else?”

“Whatever dishes are your most popular- and make at least some of it mild.  An angel will be joining me.”  Dylaniel said as he walked toward a small table in the corner, then took the seat that placed his back to the wall.  “If that’s a problem with anyone, they can take it up with me.”

He pulled his sheathed sword off his back, placing it menacingly on the table.  The demons eyed him cautiously, but they also went about their business including bringing him some lunch.  Intimidation might not produce the same level of comfort & reliability as genuinely earned trust & authority, yet it did have its merits.  When Hael arrived the demons didn’t approach her except to ask what type of beer she wanted.

“Are you alright?”  Dylaniel asked as he gestured for Hael to take the seat across from him.

“I am not in danger if that is your concern.”  Hael looked around the restaurant at the half dozen demons that were watching them.  “Or at least Heaven doesn’t appear to be a danger to me.”

“I won’t let these demons hurt you and they’ll keep interlopers away.”  He assured her.  “What did you wish to discuss?”

“There’s talk about holding a vote on decriminalizing the birth of nephilim.”

Dylaniel’s ears perked up at mention of a topic so near & dear to his heart.  For over two years, angels had been experimenting with emotions & interpersonal relationships, largely thanks to him.  His performance at the church had spread a virus of sorts throughout Heaven and Sam’s desperate prayer for compassion & defiance had knocked hundreds or thousands of teetering angels over the edge.  

As of the last count he’d heard, roughly forty angels were in relationships with humans.  So far the issue of nephilim hadn’t yet come to a head.  Having a nephilim was still technically a crime on the books in Heaven, so no angel had yet tried to conceive- though Dylaniel suspected it was just a matter of time before either a contraceptive or an angel’s accommodating nature failed.  If an angel did become pregnant before the law changed, it could prove to be a very delicate political minefield- after all, the humans would have a 50% interest in the child as well.

“Do you think it has enough votes to pass?”

“Possibly.”  Hael didn’t sound particularly convinced.  “The Traditionalists are arguing that it’s unnecessary now that the fighting is done.  None of the choirs were harmed so much that the population needs restoration.  The Liberals are trying to frame the issue as a matter of personal rights, but with productivity below even our historic lows, there’s been concern that becoming parents would distract angels from their duties.”

“They can do both.”  Dylaniel rejected the idea.  His parents had shouldered a much larger burden than a normal angel in this day & age, and he’d turned out just fine.  With the exception of two angels, all of the xes he’d ever met had been both excellent parents & productive members of society.

“No one has ever seen it.  From the perspective of Heaven, every angelic parent to a nephilim has been fallen and lived in hiding.  There’s no evidence to show that they can continue to perform their duties and the Moderates are scared to risk harming Heaven any further.”

“Preventing angels from acting upon their emotions harms Heaven.”  He countered.

“That harm is less clear.”

A server dropped off an assortment of dishes, but Dylaniel had lost some of his appetite at the way she was discussing the issue.  He had no doubt that Hael was in favor of decriminalization, but she didn’t seem very hopeful.

“Angels can’t allow their emotions to be repressed.  Doing so is just making the environment more volatile.”  He argued.

“Some emotions are being permitted.”  Hael tried to frame the situation in a slightly better light.

“Some?”  He raised an eyebrow while sipping his beer.

“Productive emotions: loyalty, joy, compassion-”

“Positive emotions should be nurtured, but ignoring negative emotions doesn’t make them disappear.”  Dylaniel warned.  “They’ll just keep getting worse.  This whole situation is getting worse.”

Dylaniel knew that he had a reputation for worrying.  It was an understandable side effect of growing up surrounded by threats.  He didn’t consider himself paranoid, but he acknowledged that that was largely because by definition the threats within paranoia aren’t real.  All too often it felt like he was watching a slow motion train wreck and only his immediate family even bothered to take his concerns seriously.

“We can attempt to fix this once we finalize the more urgent policies.”  Hael dismissed the danger. “Right now the highest priority has to be reaching some sort of consensus as to the role of angels & Heaven, otherwise we will have another conflict.”

“Consensus might be an overly ambitious goal.  Most governmental structures only require a majority endorsement.”  Dylaniel pointed out.  “Regardless, the longer angels leave their negative feelings repressed, the harder the damage will be to undo.  You remember what it was like when you faced your own anguish, imagine that pain built up over months or years.  This is dangerous.  I can’t stress that enough.”

She paused, mouth partially open, unable to bring herself to continue arguing.  The comparison to her personal experience had hit her as intended.  He wouldn’t presume that she fully appreciated the threat, but the way her eyes lost some of their glimmer assured him that she was on the right track.

“I… I understand.”  Hael acknowledged softly.  “I just don’t know how to fix it at this point.  I’ll speak to my superiors and those I have influence with, but… advocating the spread of hurtful emotions is essentially incitement.”

“Do you think they’d arrest you for merely discussing this?”

“I’ll be careful who I speak with,”  She assured.  “but in theory it is possible.  I’ve heard of angels being arrested for actively trading negative emotions, but simply trying to destigmatize them, I don’t know.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”  Dylaniel asked.

“Would you consider visiting Heaven?  At the very least your testimony might carry weight in the election.”

“No, everyone knows my views anyway.  My presence would only further polarize opinions.”  Aside from the political implications, Dylaniel still refused to enter the same plane as Michael.  Beyond his general loathing of the Archangel, there was the legitimate concern that being on the same plane would make them close enough for Michael to overcome the anti-communication warding on Dylaniel.  He didn’t know what sorts of ways Michael might use that against him, but he didn’t intend on finding out.  Though, despite the danger, he wanted to help.  “But I’d meet with angels in a neutral setting if they’re interested.”

“I’m sure that many of my siblings would wish to meet with you.”  

“No blockers, though.”  He quickly added.  “I don’t begrudge their choir, but I can’t risk being confined.”

“I understand completely.”  Hael assured.  “I’ll vet anyone who wishes to meet with you.”

“Are you worried that there will be an attempt to kill me?”  He assumed there would be, but the thought that someone else might also be considering it piqued his interest.

“I don’t have any specific reason to worry.  I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”  Hael explained, then added.  “You’re my friend.”

“I’m grateful to have you as a friend.”  He replied, causing her to smile, but her happiness visibly faded after a moment.

“There’s another matter, a related matter, that I’d like to discuss…  I’m worried about Castiel.”  She confided in a slightly hushed voice.  “With the discussions over nephilim, he has been the subject of several investigations.  He’s seen as one of the most likely angels to break the standing edict.”

“Is he dating someone?”  Dylaniel found it hard to believe that Castiel might be dating without ample gossip floating his way.

“No, but it seems likely that he has no qualms with having a nephilim in defiance of Heaven.”

“Castiel is not my xe.”  Dylaniel hated every time he had to remind others of that fact.  “He shouldn’t carry the stigma of my birth.”

“The association is hard to ignore, especially…”  Heal hesitated to say something, then finally added.  “He’s been experiencing emotions recently.”

“What kind of emotions?”  Once again, Dylaniel found her tone unsettling.

“Remorse, depression, longing- among others.”

Dylaniel nearly frowned.  It sounded like Castiel was dabbling in some very difficult emotions.  The cause might’ve been stress over the political situation, worrying about the family, or maybe it was the fact that, aside from relaying Dean’s message about the DEPA visit, he hadn’t seen anyone in the family for several weeks or months.

“Does he know he’s being investigated?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why he hasn’t been communicating with us as much over the last few months.”  Dylaniel mused.  “Is there a way I can talk to him?”

“I’ll let him know that you’d like to meet.  I’m sure he’d find a way to see you.”

“Make sure he knows not to take risks just for me.”  Dylaniel knew that he was one of Castiel’s biggest weaknesses.  There was no doubt in Dylaniel’s mind that if he or Dean needed help Castiel would come running regardless of the consequences.

“I’ll make sure he’s safe.”

* * *

After some covert coordination, Dylaniel & Castiel were able to arrange a meeting at the bunker the morning after the lunch with Hael.  Even though he trusted both the location & his company, Dylaniel followed his custom of arriving at least 5 minutes early to any scheduled meeting in order to assess the danger.  He didn’t bother checking more than the front door & the garage for anything out of the ordinary.  On his way to the library, he peeked into Dean’s bedroom to see if there was anything that Dean had been forced to abandon and might want subtly delivered to his apartment.  Dylaniel found Castiel waiting for him when he got back to the library.

“Hael said you wanted to speak with me.  Is everything alright?”  Castiel greeted Dylaniel.

“We haven’t spoken in some time and I’m concerned about your wellbeing.”  Dylaniel replied.  “Hael indicated that you may be distressed.”

“My work has been difficult recently.”  Castiel acknowledged.  “The Liberal faction has asked me to lead a large project.  There’s been… unforeseen complications resulting from it.  One of them being an investigation into my capacity to serve & my loyalty- I’m not disloyal.”

The fact that Castiel had felt the need to clarify that point was slightly discouraging.  Either Castiel had gotten into the habit of defending his loyalty, he was doubting himself, or he questioned Dylaniel’s assessment of him.  None of which were good possibilities.

“I think loyalty might be the quality you hold in the highest regard.”  Dylaniel observed, hoping to put Castiel at ease.  “That’s why you face many internal struggles.  Talking them through might help you resolve those conflicts.”

“I’ve submitted to several covenants.”  Castiel shifted his weight in a surprisingly clear showing of discomfort.  “None of them have placed me in a direct conflict with your family, but I think that will be asked of me.”

“What’s happening?”  Dylaniel asked with growing alarm.

“I have an oath of secrecy placed on me.”  Castiel commented.  Dylaniel sighed at the potential roadblock, then Castiel continued.  “It’s actually very poorly conceived.  Heaven could benefit greatly by consulting with the Crossroads.”

“Tell me whatever you can.”

“A group of angels I’ve been monitoring have disappeared from Heaven.  They are among the most conservative members of the Traditionalists.  Their group is affiliated with Michael, but I haven’t been able to locate evidence that he gave them any instruction.”

Dylaniel’s mind immediately started running through different alarming thoughts.  If the angels weren’t in Heaven anymore, they were almost certainly on Earth.  The question was what were they trying to do?  It was hard to imagine what Michael might want to happen to Earth, but that was assuming they were following his direction.  The more conservative views of angels were simply unnerving in their own right.

“How did that trigger an investigation into your fitness to serve Heaven?”

“The group left Heaven shortly after the rumor of a nephilim vote began spreading.  The timing does not appear to be coincidental.  Our best guess is that they are intending to influence the vote somehow, though we haven’t figured out the exact method.”  Castiel’s jaw clenched for a moment, another anxious tell that Dylaniel recognized from his xe.  “I expressed an additional more generalized concern that they might be acting in Michael’s interest.  It was suggested that my concern for you & Dean might be affecting my judgment.”

“Is it?”  Dylaniel asked, making Castiel pause for a moment to consider his answer.

“Before meeting you two, I’d never seen vessels express fear & loathing for their angel.  I… I think the protocols of consent might not be enough to protect vessels.  It should be the priority of each angel in Heaven to protect vessels against coercion.  I don’t doubt that these angels are capable of it or that Michael would be worth the danger in their minds.”  Castiel turned his palms upward in a vague shrugging gesture.  “Whether that’s a reasonable concern or the result of our relationship, I’m not sure.”

“I think it’s a reasonable concern.”  Dylaniel assured.  “Though many people find that my standards differ from their own.”

“I’ll take some comfort in that regardless.”  

“Have you communicated with Dean since he was contacted by DEPA?”  Dylaniel redirected the conversation toward the more delicate subject.

It had been almost two weeks.  Technically Dean had a burner phone that he had used once to call the family with, but it hadn’t provided enough confidence to be used more often.  Dylaniel had asked Wigfrid to covertly check on him three times and her reports had indicated that he was safe.  In a strange way it felt like Dean had succumbed to the same fatigue & weight of the world that had pushed both Sam & himself out of the spotlight- though he supposed that Sam was under a binding contract in addition to the ambient threat of harm.  Regardless of its origin, at that point Dylaniel wasn’t prepared to disrupt Dean’s situation except to protect him.  Presumably Castiel felt similarly, but at the same time the lack of communication might be hurting Castiel.

“No, I don’t want to risk communicating with him.”  Castiel replied.

“It looks like the surveillance lessened after 24 hours.  He is being monitored in several ways, but there is some predictability at this point.  As long as reasonable precautions are taken, it should be possible to contact him.”

“I think it’s best that I stay away from him.”  Castiel countered.

“Hael told me that she’s concerned about you.  The emotions she observed in you are consistent with stress, but there were others that are often related to other states.”  Dylaniel gave Castiel a moment to volunteer anything, but he didn’t.  “Are you in love with Dean?”

There was a long silence that neither of them particularly wanted to carry the burden of ending.

“I… I don’t know.”  Castiel finally admitted.  “I miss being with him.”

“Do you miss his friendship or do you want something more than that?”

“Regardless of my state, it’s a moot point.”  Castiel evaded.

“I probably know you better than almost anyone.  I know you’re an emotionally being- and that’s fine.”  Dylaniel assured.  “But you need to deal with this before it becomes a problem.”

“I don’t have time to deal with Dean-”

“You’re avoiding him.”

“He is preoccupied & being monitored.  I am also being watched-”  Castiel pursed his lips at Dylaniel’s blatantly skeptical expression.  After staring unblinkingly at each other for what felt like a whole minute, Castiel relented first.  “I can smell his partner on him, in his apartment, in the car.  It’s unpleasant- But I still come when he calls for my assistance.”

“You shouldn’t bury these feelings-”

“I am not your parent.”  Castiel nearly snapped, his tone betraying the pressure that he was under.

“No, you most definitely are not.”  Dylaniel stated a little colder than usual before recovering.  “But I’m your friend.  And whether we like it or not, I’m probably the only person you’d actually talk to about this.  So swallow your pride and let’s get this over with.”

“You’re very stubborn.”

“We have that in common.”

They stared at each other once again, and just like before Castiel broke first.

“It won’t change anything.  If he didn’t leave his partner for his own safety, he won’t leave his partner.”

“Even if you can’t be in a relationship with him, it’s not fair that you should have to bend over backwards to accommodate him.”  Dylaniel advised.  “You are in a position of high stress and you need to take care of your emotional wellbeing.  If you aren’t careful, you could put yourself & those around you in danger.”

The last thing any of them needed was for Castiel to have an emotional outburst during a strategic meeting in Heaven and either be removed from his rank or detained.  Heaven didn’t use its mind-altering rehabilitation treatments as liberally as it once did, but an emotionally unstable angel in a sensitive intelligence position might easily warrant such extreme measures.  With Castiel working so closely to a project that might involve nephilim or Michael’s vessels, Dylaniel wasn’t surprised by either the heightened pressure of Castiel’s work or the heightened scrutiny surrounding him.

“I do not want to make the situation uncomfortable.”

“Life is always somewhat uncomfortable when you’re making the most of it.”  Dylaniel suggested.  “You fell for this pain just as much as you did for the conviction & joy.  Never neglect anything you’ve paid such a high price for- and don’t let it cost you your life.”

“I…”  Castiel hesitated for a moment before committing.  “I don’t want to harm his partnership, if that’s what makes him happy.”

“I’m not suggesting that you try to interfere in his relationship.  Just that you reflect on your feelings, understand them, & grieve appropriately.  Don’t let affection turn to resentment or volatility because you’re too scared to acknowledge your pain.”  Dylaniel took a step closer and made an effort to force some emotion & sincerity into his voice.  “You have people in your life who are concerned about your wellbeing.”

“You & Hael are generous in that respect.”

“We aren’t the only people who care about you.”  Dylaniel corrected.  “It’s surprisingly easy.  I suggest you try it sometime.”


	13. Words & the Power Behind Them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \----- Trigger warning: Homophobic & racial slurs ------

6/3/2010

“I don’t understand how you can eat so much.”  Jeremy comment while shaking his head.

“I have a great metabolism.  It’s one of the only good things my dad gave me.”  Dean placed the bag of to go boxes on top of the impala and turned back to Jeremy.

“I’ll bet your rugged good looks came from him too.”  Jeremy wrapped his arms around Dean’s neck, inviting a kiss.

“Please, I’m pretty.”  Dean corrected with a little grin.

“Not just pretty.  You’re dangerously sweet.”  Jeremy kissed Dean.

“Get out of here, fags!”  Someone shouted from a ways off.

There was a group of three men standing on the other end of the restaurant’s parking lot staring at them.  When Dean & Jeremy looked over at them the men stood a little taller, welcoming conflict.  Jeremy stopped hugging Dean, putting a bit of space between them, though he subtly took Dean’s hand.

“You’re disgusting!”  One of the men yelled.

“Come on, let’s go.”  Jeremy whispered to Dean.  “Dean, I know you’re upset, but please.”

Dean could hear the suppressed fear in Jeremy’s voice.  He nodded without taking his eyes off the group, then squeezed Jeremy’s hand in reassurance.  Jeremy started moving around the impala to climb into the passenger side while Dean started to put the leftovers in the car.

“Yeah, run you chink faggot!”

Dean froze.  He clenched his fists.  He couldn’t think straight.  He wanted to leave it alone, but they kept pushing and the way they were intimidating Jeremy was just too much.  He could hear their footsteps coming up behind him.  When he turned around he saw that the leader was only a few feet away.

“You got something you want to say?”  The leader goaded Dean.

“No, we’re-”  Jeremy started to answer for Dean, but the leader pointed at Jeremy.

“Shut the fuck-”  

Dean punched the leader in the face before he could finish threatening Jeremy.  The bigot’s nose cracked loudly on impact and blood began pouring down his face.  

Dean had a momentary feeling of panic at the realization that Jeremy didn’t know he could fight.  Before he could figure out whether to pretend to be bad at fighting or how to explain being good at it, the leader charged at him, tackling him to the ground.  The leader punched Dean twice in the side of his torso before Dean could land a hit on the guy’s face.

One of the other men circled around the car after Jeremy.  Dean kneed the leader, then threw him back into the other flunky and scrambled around the car.  He grabbed the guy from behind before he could attack Jeremy.  The bigot elbowed Dean in the stomach, making him buckle, but Dean didn’t let go of him.  While Dean held his arms, Jeremy kneed the attacker in the crotch.  Dean delivered another quick hit before they hastily got in the car and left before the three men could recover.

* * *

“Sit down on the couch.”  Jeremy instructed when they entered his apartment.  “Don’t lay down though.  I don’t want you passing out.”

“I’m not gonna pass out.”  Dean assured as he sat down.

“You might have a concussion.”  Jeremy started making a bag of ice wrapped in a dishcloth, then handed it to Dean before hurrying to the bathroom to get the first aid kit.  “You sure I can’t take you to the hospital?”

“I don’t need a doctor.”

“If you’re worried about the bill, I can-”  Jeremy said as he sat down on the couch next to Dean.

“J, please,”  Dean took his hand.  “It’s okay.  I’m fine.”

Jeremy silently stared at Dean for a few seconds before he began cleaning the scrape from the asphalt on Dean’s upper back.  The fight had obviously been upsetting for Jeremy- he hadn’t said anything on the drive back to his apartment.  Dean wasn’t sure what to say.  He’d never been in a situation like that.  The whole thing was fucked up, but seeing someone he cared about so hurt & frightened by those slurs- Dean could feel his guilt flare at the memory of the things he’d said to & about Dee.  The thought made him regret not beating those bigots even more.

“You can’t fight them.”  Jeremy finally said in little more than a whisper.

“I think I just did.”

“That’s not funny.”  Jeremy stopped what he was doing, put down the gauze, and looked at Dean with a very serious expression on his face.  “I need you to listen to me.  You’re new to this, so I don’t expect you to get it right away, but that wasn’t just a scuffle.  People like that kill us.”

“He called you-”

“I know you were trying to stand up for me, but I don’t want you risking your life over some words.”  Jeremy took Dean’s hand in his.  “I need you to hear me, really hear me, okay?  We don’t get to have a relationship like straight people get.  Seven years ago we could get arrested- hell, Kansas hasn’t even taken its anti-sodomy law off the books- People like us get murdered everyday and nobody cares- and people like them know it.”

“What do you expect me to do?”  Dean asked, still trying to process what he’d just heard.

“Just ignore them and we’ll leave.”

“But they’ll walk all over you.”

“This is my life- my whole life people like that have been there.  My friends have been beat up.  I’ve been beat up.  You just got beat up.”  Jeremy’s shoulders slumped and he looked at his lap instead of meeting Dean’s eyes.  “I don’t want you getting hurt.  I don’t want to be up at night worrying that you’re out there and it went too far.”

Dean kissed Jeremy softly.  He could taste tears.

He had been facing danger for his entire life and in a lot of ways violence had stopped frightening him long ago- but this was different.  Not only did he have more people who cared for him, the threats were new.  These weren’t werewolves or ghosts, they were humans.  They had human motives and human means.  There wasn’t any doubt in his mind that he could take one or two guys in a brawl without trouble, but humans had guns- humans had systemic forms of persecution that Jeremy had suffered through his whole life.  If the cops had shown up during the fight, what were the odds that the cops would side with the bigots?

“I’ll be more careful, I promise.”

“You better be.”  Jeremy squeezed his hand, then looked down bashfully.  “I think I might be in love with you.”

Dean stared at him completely dumbstruck.  He’d only ever been in an emotionally invested relationship with Cassie and that’d just lasted a few weeks.  He’d told her that he loved her, but that relationship had been simple- young & naive.  After Cassie, he’d largely given up on substantive relationships, until Jeremy.  For months Dean had avoided trying to label & quantify any aspect of their relationship- it’d taken five weeks of them seeing each other almost every day before Dean had seriously considered whether they were dating.  Regardless of how much Jeremy meant to Dean, the talk of love was a huge step of vulnerability.

“J, I… it’s hard for me to let people get close- I’m used to getting hurt.”

“Are you…”  Jeremy let go of Dean’s hands.  “is this not going anywhere?”

“No, god no.  That’s not-”  Dean hastily corrected.  “I just… I don’t know when I’ll be ready for… more, but thinking about this ending- that’s the last thing I want.”

“I’m not pushing- I’m really not.”  Jeremy was always careful to make sure that Dean wasn’t feeling pressured to move their physical relationship to the next level.

“I know, it means a lot to me.”

“If you don’t love me-”  Dean pulled him into a long kiss, then rested his forehead against Jeremy’s.

“I want you and I want this- I know it’s dangerous, but I’m happy when I’m with you- and I want to be safe.  I don’t want you to be scared.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This deleted scene has been sitting about 95% done in my Google Drive for a few months. Then last week my Constitutional Law class discussed the history of anti-sodomy laws in the U.S. and I found out that Kansas was one of the harshest states in the country. Anti-sodomy laws were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003, but Kansas was one of the few states that didn't repeal their law (they just don't attempt to enforce it). The fact that Jeremy is a gay man, who's seen how little time has passed or how little has changed since then- the class discussion pushed me to commit to the scene.


	14. Security

“Mommy, have snack?”  Kaylee asked after temporarily abandoning her toy tiger in search of tastier quarry.

“Alright, you can have a little snack.  Let me see what we’ve got.”  Ruby explained as she scooped up Anansi from where he’d been playing on the living room floor, then went to look for something that wasn’t entirely sugar.  She propped her son on one hip while digging through the refrigerator.  “Hummus?”

“No.”  Kaylee shook her whole upper body along with her head causing her dress to swish from side to side.

“Cucumber?”

“No.”

“Olives?”

“No.”

“Do you know what you want?”

“No.”

“Are you gonna say something other than no?”  Ruby said rhetorically, causing Kaylee’s brow to furrow while trying the parse the question.

“No.”  Kaylee cautiously dragged out the one word answer, earning an amused smile.

“You love hummus.”  Ruby reminded her daughter, unconvinced that the 20 month old had actually made an informed decision.  “Are you sure you don’t want some?”

“Hummus?”  Kaylee asked uncertainly.

“Here, let me show you.”  

Ruby took the tupperware container out of the fridge, popped off the top, then held it down low enough for Kaylee to see what she was talking about.  As Kaylee examined the pale tan paste Ruby’s cell phone started ringing.  Ruby’s hands were full, so she gave Kaylee the tub of hummus, before answering her phone.  The call was from Hell.

Tommy was safely out of earshot with Sam & Dean on a day trip to the city, so she slipped into Abyssal for the call.  It took about ten seconds for her to realize that she was needed downstairs.  Her assistant, Alheim, sounded particularly angry as he started launching into way too much detail for an interplanar phone call.  After getting him to shut up for a second, she confirmed that the situation was critical, but not imminently dangerous.  She assured him that she’d be down shortly, hung up, then looked at her two young children.

Ruby tried calling Sam & Dean to see if one could teleport home, but they were somewhere with bad cell reception.  Dylaniel lived in the wilderness, so he was rarely accessible by cell phone except during specific times of day when he’d be in town.  In a pinch people could pray to him, but Ruby wasn’t convinced demon prayers were perceivable.  Most of the coven was out on errands or hikes, and the few witches left in the camp weren’t capable of handling Anansi if he managed to get his warded cuffs off.  Ruby tried calling Sam’s cell one last time and left him a message.

“Don’t panic.  There’s an info-security crisis in Hell and I need to get down there right now.  I can’t find anyone to watch Kaylee & Ani, so I’m gonna bring them with me.  It shouldn’t take more than a few hours Hell time.”

Ruby grabbed two teleportation talismans, placed them in each infant’s hands, then held them close.

“We’re gonna go visit your auntie Kay.”

* * *

Kaylee, Anansi, & Malek played on the floor of the throne room.  Kay had made a play area for the children that consisted of some soft moss carpet and a few brightly colored bushes.  Ruby split her attention between Alheim’s report and the children, from her position standing next to Kay’s throne.  A handful of her subordinates were gathering the latest data in preparation for the emergency meeting while she reviewed the general situation.

To Ruby’s mild annoyance, every demon with authorization to access the Citadel was packing the halls trying to get a peek at the three infant demons.  She didn’t like the idea of the kids being a spectacle, though she couldn’t blame the other demons for being curious.  The children giggled as the played, sending ripples of whispers through the crowd.  At least a handful of demons would sneak peeks at Malek at any given moment, but never had there been multiple children in Hell.

“Aren’t they a welcome sight.”  Crowley commented as he approached Ruby & Kay from the High Council’s chamber.

“Don’t get used to it.”  Ruby warned without glancing up from writing a note in the report’s margin.  “I’m just without a babysitter.”

“Regardless, we’ll see if we can make them feel at home.”  Crowley assured.  Kaylee spotted Crowley talking to her mom and walked up to stand next to Ruby’s leg.  She looked up at the Crossroads demon with interest.  “Hello, princess.”

“Hi.”  Kaylee replied, then bashfully played with her lilac dress.

“She’s not in the monarchy.”  Ruby told Crowley.  She didn’t want to explicitly say that Kaylee wasn’t a princess in front of her for fear that Kaylee would argue that she was a princess- she had a pretty dress after all.

“Our young Malek might be the first in the line of succession, but we currently don’t have many other options.”  Crowley commented.  “Speaking of which, how is S-”

“Crowley.”  Kay nodded toward the crowd of demons on the other side of the hall, reminding him to avoid discussing Sam in public.

Sam’s existence was far from a secret within Hell, but gossiping about him was severely discouraged.  Those in the inner circle of Hell didn’t want the public demanding evidence that he was alive.  It was difficult enough to control or muddy what information Earth or members of the Order of the Morningstar might glean.  Luckily, Anansi & Malek were close enough in age that Earth’s intelligence agencies were still confusing them and therefore unable to figure out the number of born demons, let alone their parents.  It was widely agreed that the more they could obscure intel about Sam, the better.

“Of course.”  Crowley nodded at Kay, acknowledging the near slip.  “I’ll just stop by for another little chat at some point.  Shola tells me that he’s been very helpful in brainstorming on several ground leases.”

“You keep working him like that, you should start to give him shares in the Crossroads’ inventory.”  Kay suggested, causing Crowley to shoot her an unamused glance.

“Mommy,”  Kaylee tugged on one of Ruby’s pant legs.  “they funny.”

“Who’s funny?”  Ruby asked.

“All them.”  Kaylee pointed at the crowd by the main doors to the throne room, then to Mir & Crowley in turn.

“What’s funny about them?”

“Like mommy.”  Kaylee tried to explain.

“I don’t understand.”

“Oh, I think I’ve got this.”  Kay offered, then walked over to Kaylee and crouched down to be closer to eye level with the toddler.  “Kaylee, does everybody feel the same?  Do they feel the way mommy feels?”

“Fuzzy grey.”  Kaylee nodded.

“That’s one way of putting it.”  Kay acknowledged with a small shrug.  “Everyone here is a demon, that’s what that ‘fuzzy grey’ feeling is.  Demons & non-demons feel different to you, your dad, & me- and probably to Ani & Mal too.  It’s just something you can tell about people.”

“Demon.”  Kaylee echoed, then thought for a few seconds while staring at Kay.  “Auntie Kay demon?”

“Yep, I’m a demon.”

“Ani, Mal demon?”

“Yes, your brother & cousin are both demons.”  Ruby confirmed while patting Kaylee’s head.  “There’s nothing wrong with being a demon.  We just live somewhere where there aren’t many demons.  And there are a lot here.”

“I like demon.”  Kaylee announced after careful consideration.  Despite her daughter not fully understanding what being a demon actually entailed, Ruby’s heart tightened a bit at the moment.  Kaylee had expressed some degree of pride or at least affection for her species.  She knew that Kay had turned out very pro-demon, but that undoubtedly came with having the King of Hell for a father.  To see that Kaylee was feeling warmly toward demons, that had been something Ruby hadn’t dared to place a lot of hope in.

“That’s wonderful, starlight.”

* * *

Anansi started making cooing noises while reaching for a bright pink bush with fluffy white flowers.  He stared intently at the plant, then huffed a bit.  When nothing happened, he began tugging ineffectively at his wristbands.

“Does your son want to have his wards taken off?”  Crowley asked Ruby.

“I bet he does, but I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”  Ruby replied.  “It’s hard enough getting those back on him when he isn’t in a powers playground.”

Ever since finding out about Anansi’s telekinesis and placing the warded wristbands on him, moments like bath time had become the bane of Sam & Ruby’s existence.  Their infant son had evidently figured out that the source of his restriction was the wristbands.  Every time they were forced to take the bands off him, the little bits of fabric went flying across the room, then Sam had to test his own skill with telekinesis for however long it took for Ruby to do whatever was needed and reaffix the magical accessories.

“How long do you think you’ll keep him like that?”  Crowley inquired.

“At least until he can follow directions.  Right now he’s a bit hit & miss on the concepts of ‘no’ or ‘stop’.  It’d probably also help if he knew more words.  That way he doesn’t just take things he doesn’t know how to ask for.”

“You won’t have to wait too long.”  Kay commented while returning to her throne.  “He’s a sharp kid.”

“Has Mal used telekinesis?”  Ruby asked, eyeing the young prince.  Kay had been on the same collection of magical prenatal supplements that Ruby attributed Anansi’s unusual affinity for telekinesis to.

“Not yet.”  Kay commented as she watched her son trying to stand up using a tall skinny shrub for support.  “His physical strength might technically be just a variation on telekinesis or maybe he just won’t inherit all the usual powers.  He’s got at least a few more years, and regardless, he’s going to be a force of nature.”

Malek accidentally snapped the top half of the shrub off and pitched forward, but Kay telekinetically caught him before he hit the floor.  She gently lowered him to the ground, an affectionate smile spreading across her face.  He crawled over to the foot of the throne, then reached up for his mom.  Kay picked him up and tickled his stomach eliciting a soft laugh.  He grabbed at her black leather long jacket, nuzzling his face into her chest.

“Careful with your horns, Mal.”  Kay softly warned him.  “Are you hungry?”

Ruby watched with mild amusement as the Queen of Hell unbuttoned her top and began breastfeeding her son in front of a hall full of people.  No one commented, which made Ruby think that this routinely happened.  It was actually really refreshing to see when Ruby thought about it.  She’d always found it annoying whenever activity around her slowed just because she was feeding one of the kids.  With the throne room being a place where so much business was conducted it was nice to know that pragmatism reigned.

“Your nipples must be made of steel.”  Ruby whispered to Kay, who smirked at the comment.

“Very fine detail telekinesis, I don’t actually let him bite down.”  Kay explained.

“Cheater.”  Ruby said as the rest of her core team team arrived and the throne room was cleared of nonessential demons in preparation for the security meeting.

* * *

“We have two very carefully laid channeled scrying spells tethered to Heaven.”  Brenita, one of the analysts, started diving into the issue as soon as the doors were closed and the children were returned to their play area.  “The pair of spells are penetrating into their third tier of protection, giving us access to a significant amount of intel-”

“Meanwhile the humans are about to cock everything up.”  Alheim added, visibly annoyed.  “The Five Eyes are trying to break into Heaven’s second tier of protection, but the quality of their spells is complete shit.  By our best estimates, they’re at most three Earth hours from being found out by Heaven.”

“And the humans getting caught spying on Heaven warrants an emergency meeting?”  Kay asked, unsure of the threat to Hell that the team had foreseen.

“The humans used the same exploits as us to breach Heaven’s security, we just were more careful cleaning up after ourselves.”  Brenita elaborated with an overly formal nod of servitude to her queen.

“When Heaven finds the humans in their system, they’ll do a broader check and possibly find us too.”  Ruby speculated.  “So the question is:  Do we cut our links and not be found out, leave the links up and hope through some miracle they miss us, or do we do something about the humans?”

“Do something?”  Kay raised an eyebrow.

“We could warn them and hope they break their link.”  Ruby suggested, not entirely thrilled with scenarios that involved disclosing any advantages Hell had.  “We could tell them how to clean up their craftwork, but then they’d just use our help against us.  Or if we’re really careful we might be able to break their connection.  They’ll know someone knocked them out, but they might just assume it was Heaven that did it.”

“Is there a downside to them realizing it was us?”

“Just that they’d know we’re that much ahead of them.”  Ruby shrugged.

“They have to already know we’re more advanced than them, right?”  Alheim mused.  “More than half our technology is magical in nature.  They’d be fools to think they could compete-”

“Let’s not get too full of ourselves.  They’re humans, they’re resourceful.”  Kay warned.  “If we start underestimating them we’ll open the realm to attack.”

Ruby fleetingly debated asking if Kay seriously thought Earth would take action against Hell, but she didn’t want to bring it up in front of her subordinates.  In her capacity as head of the Cerberus project, she knew every time Earth or Heaven attempted & failed at breaching Hell’s non-physical security.  Their defenses were always being prodded for weaknesses.  Despite the relentless minor assaults, Ruby tended to find the idea of a serious attack unlikely- it probably had something to do with the fact that she lived on Earth.  That was an unsettling potential blind spot.

“I’m gonna advise in my official capacity that we try to knock the Five Eyes out without tipping our hand.”  Ruby stated, setting the policy as she flipped through the report for any last minute red flags.  “Their craftsmanship of these spells puts them far enough behind us that we probably won’t be found out.  There are at least three easy points where we can collapse their work.  With a little luck Heaven won’t even see them running away with their tails tucked between their legs.”

“Relations with Heaven are strained- not that they’ve ever been good.”  Kay warned.  “If they catch us, how bad is it?”

“Politically?”  Ruby sighed as she tried to imagine the possibilities.  “Any reasonable person would expect this kind of back & forth.  They should be pulling the same shit on us, and maybe the weak efforts we’re seeing really is their best.  That’s why we have Cerberus to begin with- Heaven might not be reasonable though- they might not understand how the game is played.  I don’t trust them to shrug anything off as the normal course of business because I don’t think they know how to run a realm.  But tiptoeing around them is going to cripple us.”

“You don’t want to accommodate the risks this presents?”

“I think the risk of being caught are small and I have confidence in your ability to control the damage if it comes to it- obviously that’s more your or the Council’s call than mine.”  Ruby hastily added.  “But at a certain point we have to treat Heaven with the respect of a competent player and if they get upset about that, then that’s really just a wake up call to them to grow the fuck up.  They aren’t our ally.  If they want us to stop spying on them, they should talk to us through polite channels.”

“I’m sure that message will play well.”  Kay commented.  “But it is true that there’s no place for coddling between unallied factions.  Tensions aren’t so high that we should pull out.”

“Are we cleared to try knock the Five Eyes out of Heaven’s protections and leave our spells in place?”  Ruby asked for official approval.

“Do it.”

* * *

All in all it took about eight hours in Hell time to hold the meeting and perform the rituals necessary to boot the humans from Heaven in such a way as to hopefully preserve their own efforts.  Kaylee & Anansi were a little thrown by being away from home for an extended period, but the continual presence of their mom & aunt Kay helped mitigate the situation.  

Despite only being away from the cabin for four minutes on Earth, Sam was waiting for them when Ruby & the kids returned- apparently having urgent taken a teleportation talisman home after getting her voicemail.  He smiled at them, but Ruby could see distress in his eyes.  Kaylee immediately launched into an attempt at describing her experience of seeing bizarre plants and meeting a significant number of demons.  For the most part Sam treated the stories as something positive, though he seemed tense and conflicted to Ruby’s trained eye.  After putting the kids down for a long overdue nap, the two of them went into the living room to hash the whole thing out.

“You took them to Hell.”  Sam started, unable to really get past the elephant in the room.

“I had to deal with an emergency and there wasn’t anyone to watch them.”  Ruby said in her defense.  “They were perfectly safe.”

“I couldn’t go get them.”  Sam gestured toward the bedrooms where the kids were sleeping.  “I know popping downstairs isn’t a big deal to you or Kay, but I can’t go down there.  I can’t teleport and even if I knew a way to get down, it’d break my probation.  You took the kids where I couldn’t go.  If something went wrong, I don’t know how I’d protect them.”

“I- I’m sorry.”  It hadn’t occurred to her what the travel limitation meant to him in that narrow context.  “I didn't…”

“I spend all my time taking care of the kids- I’m not complaining and I’m not trying to say you don’t love them or get a say, but when I come home and they’re gone and I don’t have any control or input- it scares the hell out of me.”  Sam sighed.  “You & the kids are everything to me.  Not being able to get to you…”

“I didn’t mean to scare you like that.  I just didn’t know what else to do.”

“I know.”  He rubbed his face, trying to compose himself.  “I’m not saying you made the wrong call- When you’re soloing the kids it comes down to your call.  It’s just… sitting here for what, two minutes- that was the first time I couldn’t get to my kids if they needed me since I was captured.  It- it was like I was trapped again.”

For over a year and a half, Sam had been largely confined to the camp and whatever locations on Earth he could pass without threat of recognition.  He almost never complained about the arrangement- they knew it could’ve been a lot worse.  But as time passed there would be times when he’d feel it painfully, and they’d found one.

“It’s not fair that you have to be hidden away, that you can’t go where everyone else can.”  Ruby took his hand.

“Most of the time it’s okay.”  He tried to reassure, but he was still too emotionally fatigued for the statement to carry much weight.  “It’s just… I know the world is holding together better than last time, but it still scares me, that some day the scale is going to tip too far and all of a sudden… If there’s an emergency…”

“One sec.”  Ruby went into the other room and came back with a little wooden box containing a dozen talismans.  “These are all keyed straight to my office in the Citadel.  If you ever need to get out of here- if you ever need to get the kids out of here, I want you to use them.”

“If Heaven finds out that I used one-”

“If you need to get yourself & the kids out of our home on no notice, I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks of it.”  Ruby pulled his hand to her lips.  “You & the kids are everything to me too.”

He hugged and kissed her, then held her close for a long while.  A small huff of weak laughter escaped him as he ran his fingers through her hair in gentle reassurance.

“It’s an incredible feeling, knowing that the woman who helps hold the sky above the world would let it all come crashing down for you.”  Sam whispered.

“Don’t tell Hell, but everything I do is for our family.”


	15. About A Girl

3/13/2012

Dean was just walking back to the impala from Jeremy's apartment building when his cell phone started ringing.  To his surprise it was Anael.  Aside from a brief interaction at Sam & Ruby’s wedding he hadn't spoken to her in over a year.

“Hello?”

“Dean, are you busy?  I need help.”  Her voice was more distressed than he’d ever heard from her.

“I'm not busy.  What can I d-”  Before he could finish his question he was standing in her apartment’s living room.

“I'm sorry.  I shouldn't be asking this of you, but I don't know who else to tell.  I don't know what to do.”  She looked almost exhausted as she paced.  Her eyes were a bit puffy & pink.  The sight of her like that was frightening.  “I didn't mean for it to be like this.  I'm sorry.  I didn't know what to do.”

“Ana,”  He gripped her shoulders holding her still.  “What's wrong?”

Anael turned and led him down the hall, into her bedroom.  It had slightly different furnishings than the last time he’d seen it, but the most notable change was the crib beside the bed.  Inside there was a little girl, maybe 18 months old with red hair.  For a moment he thought she was sleeping, but the girl turned her head toward them when they entered, then weakly raised her hand an inch or two.  Her skin was damp with sweat and her eyes were barely open at all.  Anael picked her up, then brought her over to Dean.

“I tried healing her, but it isn't working.”  Anael explained.

His mind was sputtering on the idea that Anael was taking care of an infant.  He could feel himself freezing up at the implications- but the girl looked very ill and all that mattered was trying to figure out how to help her.  He touched the girl’s forehead.

“She's burning up.”  Dean said as he reached out to hold her.  Anael hesitated for a moment, then handed the child to him.  “Do you have a bathtub?”

“A shower stall.”

“Start it, cold.”  He kicked off his shoes, then tossed his phone & wallet onto the bed.  He stepped into the chilly shower with the toddler, carefully letting the water run over her.  Anael anxiously watched from just outside the shower as he softly pat the girl’s back and whispered vague reassurances.  After a few seconds the girl began moving more and crying.  Dean hugged her, trying to comfort her while he was shivering.

“It's okay, Akina, mommy’s here.”  Anael said in a gentle voice.

Dean looked at Anael, then down at the little girl.  With a bit more life in her, the girl looked up at Dean for the first time and he saw her bright green eyes & freckles.  

* * *

 

_ 12/27/2009 _

_ “Thanks for giving me a lift back here.”  Dean told Anael as he took off his coat and tossed it onto the closest table in the bunker’s library. _

_ It’d only been a day or so since stopping Lilith & Raphael, but it felt like so much had changed since then.  Sam had reluctantly allowed himself to be taken to a hospital for surgery on his injured arm.  Everyone had initially gone with him, but while he was getting worked on several people broke off to take care of errands.  Kay went downstairs to conduct various meetings on the new state of the three planes.  Bobby & Jody went back to Sioux Falls to see how much damage had been done to their homes.   _

_ When Dean had fallen asleep in the waiting room, Ruby told him to go back to the bunker to get some actual rest.  He’d tried to argue that it was just the fluorescent lighting that was dragging him down- that he had some energy left in him, but Ruby wasn't listening.  So Dean asked Anael to teleport him to the bunker, leaving Dylaniel to help stand guard at the hospital. _

_ “I don't mind.”  She looked around the library, marveling at the random artifacts.  “Are you sure that it's alright for me to be here?” _

_ “You helped save our asses- and got Sam out of who knows what.  You've earned a little trust.” _

_ “So this is where you all have been hiding out.  It doesn't seem that large.”  Anael peeked through a doorway. _

_ “Come on, I'll show you around.” _

_ “I don't want to invade anyone's privacy.” _

_ “I just won't show you any of their bedrooms.”  He guided her down a hall, then opened one of the doors and gestured to reassure her that it was okay to look inside.  “If you really want to know what accommodations this place has, this is my room.” _

_ He followed her in, watching her examine the handful of weapons on the dresser. _

_ “You aren't concerned about being alone with some strange angel?”  She glanced up at him. _

_ “You don't seem strange.”  He walked over to stand next to her and absentmindedly repositioned the weapons. _

_ “What do I seem like?” _

_ “Confident, loyal,”  He smiled at her.  “brave-” _

_ “Occasionally reckless.”  Anael added, then leaned in and kissed Dean.  He hesitated for a split second, but grabbed her, pulling her into a frenzied kiss.  She grabbed him so excitedly that he grunted in something that didn't quite rise to the level of pain and started making him hard.  When he started nibbling on her earlobe she whispered.  “I've been waiting centuries to truly be free.  I want to celebrate.” _

_ She looked at him hungrily as she started taking off her shirt.  He helped pulled her shirt off, then his own.  Dean undid her black lace bra as she unbuttoned his pants.  When she slipped off her jeans, he gripped her again, eager to get his hands on her soft flesh.  They collided with the waist height dresser and Anael slipped off her panties before hopping onto the low piece of furniture.  She pulled him to her, then reached into his boxers. _

_ “One sec.”  Dean groaned.   _

_ He ran into Sam's room and started digging through the nightstands looking for a condom, but he didn't find any.  In his desperation he ran to grab the wallet from his jacket and checked the innermost fold.  There was a single condom, sealed in a wrapper that had had half of its print worn off from a few too many times riding shotgun to combat.  He pushed on the package in order to see if the wrapper was still air tight, which it was.   _

_ When he got back to his bedroom, Anael was waiting for him in his bed.  He took off his boxers, then joined her.  She pulled him down to her and they rolled across the bed in an intertwined blur of kissing and grinding.  Anael stroked his hard cock a few times while he fumbled with the condom wrapper.  She spread her legs, then started using the head of his dick to rub her clit.  In their desperate grinding, the tip of his dick slid into her wet pussy.  He started to push deeper into her, but stopped himself short of completing bottoming out.  She pulled him deeper into her, eager for more of him. _

_ “Hold- on,”  He panted in her ear as he reflexively thrust.  “I've- gotta get the-” _

_ She clenched around him.  It took all his concentration not to cum.  It'd been years since he'd had sex and he was barely thinking straight.  He hastily pushed himself off of her just long enough to slip the condom most of the way on his dick, then he fucked her hard and relentlessly.  She moaned loudly as she came, pushing him over the edge.  After he finished, he was about to pull out of her, but she reached down and cupped his balls.  Her touch produced an incredible tingling that made him hard again, so he kept fucking her.  He came two more times before tapping out, exhausted & blissed out of his mind.   _

_ When he started to pull out of her, the condom slid off of him a bit, having been clenched inside of her.  He carefully reached a finger in to make sure he was getting the condom.  In the process his finger rubbed her sensitive clit, making her tighten a bit around him.  He pulled out the condom while still managing to keep it mostly on his dick.  He groggily wiped a little cum off his fingers before pulling off the condom and passing out, completely spent from everything that had happened.  When he woke up an hour later Anael was gone. _

* * *

3/13/2012

“Take her, please.”  Dean whispered.  

He felt like he might faint.  Anael had barely taken her daughter back before he slid down the wall of the shower.  She turned off the shower so that it wasn't continuing to pour on him.  He watched her try to sooth the crying infant.  The way that she was looking at him- the way that she'd been avoiding him.  He didn't need to ask.  The girl had to be his daughter- that's why Anael had called him in her panic.

“Ana…”  He didn't even know what to say.

“I wanted to tell you.”  Anael started, but hesitated.  “I found out after you had settled down- after Heaven had asked me to monitor Sam.  I thought that they'd be watching you for awhile too.  I was scared Heaven would find out about her.”

“It's been over a year- it's almost been two- you weren't gonna tell me.”

“I thought when she was older-” Anael looked away from him, betraying some guilt.  “when she's more self-sufficient it wouldn't be so complicated.”

“It's not about what's complicated or convenient… I trusted you.”  Dean mouthed words he couldn't bring himself to voice.

“When I found out I was pregnant I didn't want to end it.  I can't tell you how rare they are.  She's serendipitous-”

“She's a kid.”  The way Anael was talking about the girl was unnerving him.

“I know, and I care about her.”

Dean wasn't sure if he found the statement comforting or if he was really gonna start reading into the fact that she didn't use the word love.  He didn't want to press her on what kind of parent Anael was being- he hadn't even been in the girl's life until five minutes earlier.  Instead he decided to talk about a common problem, something they could unite against, and the most important thing at the moment.

“What happened?  What's wrong with her?”

“I don't know.  She's normally fine, but yesterday she started crying and I couldn't get her to stop.  I tried healing her in every way I know, but this fever started.”

“How old is she?”

“20 months.”

He remembered Kay telling him that Dylaniel had been seriously ill as a baby.  She'd called it the fever and had been worried about it coming back after Dylaniel's grace had been injured by Raphael.  Dean didn't know much about grace & souls, but apparently they could get damage or ill.

“Her grace & soul, are they okay?”  He asked.  “There’s an illness nephilim get when they're kids.”

“Her soul is hurt.”  Anael said after examining the girl for a moment.  “Is she going to be okay?”

“I don't know.”  Dean admitted.  “But I know who to ask.”

* * *

Dylaniel heard Dean's prayer requesting immediate help and appeared in Anael’s bedroom within seconds.  He spotted Dean, who was soaking wet and shivering, but unharmed.  Dean nodded to the other side of the room, causing Dylaniel to turn around to see Anael cradling a trembling infant.  He stared at the little girl in complete silence.

“Dyl, there's something wrong with her.”  Dean started explaining, shaking Dylaniel from his shock.

“She’s having the fever.  It's normal for nephilim under the age of two.  Her graces & soul are trying to reach an equilibrium.”  Dylaniel told them.  He walked up to Anael, then touched girl's back for a moment, trying to diagnose the problem more specifically.  “The best thing you can do is make her comfortable and keep her near her spiritual sources.”

“Spiritual sources?”

“Let her lay on your chest.  Skin to skin contact would be best.  Being so close to your soul or Anael’s grace will make her stronger.  Though it feels like her soul has been hurt considerably more.”  Dylaniel looked at Anael.  “Anael, dry them off, then give her to Dean.  Dean, lie down and just let her sleep on your chest.”

They quickly followed Dylaniel’s instructions.  Dean felt a little strange unbuttoning his shirt and letting some child he’d just met rest on him- even if she was his daughter, he wasn't even sure what her name was.  Anael had said it at one point, but he hadn't actually caught it.

“Will this fix her?”  Anael asked anxiously.

“There was a marked decrease in fatalities when nephilim have access to both parents during the fever.”  Dylaniel commented.  “Letting her soul find kinship should improve her chances.”

“Fatalities?”  Dean asked with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Roughly 5% of nephilim die from the fever- it's closer to 25% when they only have access to one parent during the affliction.”  Dylaniel looked at Anael.  “When did she become ill?”

“Yesterday morning.”

“If she recovers it should be in the next 12 hours.  If she doesn't, it won't take that long.”  Dylaniel observed in a move that didn’t seem to make anyone feel better.  With the girl as close to stabilized as they could manage, Dylaniel turned to Anael with a deathly serious expression on his face.  “Who knows about her?”

“A handful of my friends.”  Anael replied.

“No- who specifically?”  Dylaniel pressed.  “Names, species, where do they live- make a list right now.”

“Dyl you need to calm down.”  Dean suggested from the bed.

“No one can know about her.”  Dylaniel spoke severely.  

“I've taken every precaution.”  Anael said in her defense.

“You must've told people about her.  I need to know who they are.”

“Dyl, you aren't gonna go out and murder all of her closest friends.”  Dean guessed.

“You two have no idea what you've done.”  Dylaniel looked between them.  “If she even survives this, she’ll be in danger her entire life-”

“The DEPA haven't been watching me closely since Tamara got them off my back.”  Dean offered hopefully.  “And Heaven isn't hunting Swords of Heaven-”

“Just because Michael is temporarily imprisoned doesn't mean that we're safe.  The powers of Heaven aren't going to just sit idly by when they find out about an opportunity like this.  She’s young enough that she can be influenced and she can't defend herself.  The moderates will try to manipulate her- the conservatives will try to take her if not kill her outright.”

“Dyl, this isn't your time.  She's not gonna have the same problems you went through.”

“This world is not stable.  Heaven is not stable.  I'm happy that your life has been peaceful for the last two years, but you didn't dodge a bullet, it just hasn't hit yet.  This calm isn't going to last and when the conflict starts all of us will be pulled in.”  Dylaniel warned.  “Don’t doubt for a moment that every faction in Heaven is calculating how to make you their pawn if necessary- they’ll do the same for your daughter, infant or not.  If you don't believe me, talk to your angelic contacts and see how they treat you.”

Dylaniel paced slightly and spoke with more emphasis, gesturing as he went.  Dean hadn't seen him so agitated before.  It was deeply unnerving.  Dylaniel was so concerned that it was starting to scare Dean.

“Dyl…”

“Talk to Kay- If you pity me, just...”  Dylaniel stopped himself.  Anael & Dean were already rattled enough to start taking the matter seriously.  “If you two want to keep her safe, then you need to be ready to take drastic steps.”

Dean's head was spinning.  An hour ago he hadn't even known that he had a daughter and now… He wasn't even sure if she'd survive or how much danger she would be in going forward.

“I need to go assess the threats myself.”  Dylaniel said.  “Don't tell anyone else.  Don't take her outside.  Pray for me if anything changes.”

* * *

After Dylaniel left, Dean & Anael exchanged a long silent glance.  He had no idea what to say to her.  They'd hardly interacted at all before having sex and afterward they'd generally avoided each other.  He'd assumed that she'd regretted the one night stand, then dodged him out of embarrassment.  In actuality she'd either been trying to hide their daughter’s existence or maybe it was simply uncomfortable being around him- maybe she even felt guilty about keeping him in the dark.  But now he knew and if they were going to help their daughter they'd have to work together.

“Dyl’s been through a lot.  He…”  Dean couldn’t quite get through a statement of reassurance, so he decided to extend an olive branch and reaffirming his interest.  “What's her name?”

“Akina, it means bright green.”  Anael explained.  “I'm… I’m fond of her eyes.”

“I would've helped.  I want to help.”

“I wish things had been different.”  Anael walked around the bedroom, anxiously busying herself by picking up a few tiny socks.  After picking up the third one she stopped, then turned toward him, but didn't meet his eyes.  “When I was pregnant I told myself that it was worth the risk-  She's one of the Swords of Heaven-”

“Don't-”  Dean hesitated.  He barely knew what it meant to be the Sword of Heaven, but he'd seen its profound impact of Dee & Dylaniel’s lives.  Whatever honor the angels might consider it, it was actually a burden that could easily crush a child.  “Have you told her about being the Sword?”

“I tell her about it occasionally.”  Anael replied.  “It's important for her to know.”

He looked down at the sleeping toddler and wondered how much of what Anael had told her had taken root.  It was true that it was important for her to understand what it meant to be a Sword of Heaven, but not at such a young age.  Dylaniel had been buried in responsibility when he was just a child and it had left him deeply affected.  The thought that his child might be headed down a similar path felt like some cruel illusion of fate.

“Does she play?  Is she getting to be a kid?”  He asked desperate for some reassurance.

“She plays games.  She enjoys-”

Akina started shuddered and let out the soft groan.  Dean felt her skin with his hand, then gestured for Anael to rewet the damp washcloth she'd been using to help cool her down.  He gently ran his fingers through Akina’s hair in an attempt to sooth her while Anael dabbed the little girl's back with the cloth.  They were both silent until their daughter was asleep again.

As Dean watched Akina, he realized her little chest was rising & falling in time with his own.  He checked her forehead, which was still warm, but not nearly as bad as when he arrived, then pushed a few stray hairs out of her face.  His fingers lightly caressed her arm.  When he was at her hand, she reached out and weakly grabbed his ring & pinkie fingers.  He let her just hold his hand, trying to sense if she was getting any stronger.

“When I was in charge of the garrison on Earth, part of my job was to hunt fallen angels.”  Anael started, drawing Dean's attention for some longer explanation.  “One of them, Jemael, he'd been fallen for almost fifteen years when we found him- that's a very long time for a fallen to go without being caught.  We’d managed to catch him while he was at his home.  I killed him.  I killed his partner.  I killed their daughter- she was six or seven.”

“Heaven lied to you.”

“That doesn't make me regret their deaths any less.  I think the doubt & guilt it created in me may have been my first step towards falling.”  Anael stared at Akina.  “I was just doing my job, and right now there are other angels in comparable positions doing whatever they're told.  Dlyaniel’s right, she isn’t safe.”

“We’ll find a way to keep her safe.”  Dean tried to reassure her.  Somehow Dylaniel’s parents had been able to protect him despite facing a more aggressive Heaven.

“I've been offered my old job as commander of Earth’s garrison.”  Anael sat on the bed, watching Akina sleep.

“You don't want to work with Heaven- everyone knows you shoot them down.”  Dean dismissed the idea, but the way she was avoiding his eyes made him uncomfortable.

“I was pregnant.”  Anael explained.  “I couldn't go back like that- I couldn't expose her to danger or neglect her… but I did.”

“You didn't know.”

“I can't raise her alone.”  Anael looked down at her own hands.  “I can't raise her.”

“What?”  Dean felt his stomach drop about a foot.  He wasn’t prepared to hear that- he was barely able to process the situation at all, but that-

“She needs a family that can provide for her- that can take care of her.  I've tried, but this isn't working.  My siblings keep trying to recruit me- they know what the command should mean to me- what it does mean to me.  They're being persistent and don't know how long I can… I thought I could be something I'm not.”  Anael started crying.  “No matter how much I try, I'm a soldier first- I've been trying to not get drawn into everything, but I can't keep this up.  If she stays with me they're going to find her and take her or worse.”

“I don't know how to keep her safe.”  Dean couldn't imagine taking care of her for any significant length of time.  Things may have improved since starting to work with Tamara, but the DEPA was bound to eventually notice if he was taking care of a toddler.  “I'm being watched-” 

“I kept your brother & his family safe for years.  You can find a way to keep our daughter safe.”   Anael snapped, then grimaced.  “I'm sorry.  I didn't mean that.”

“I want her to be safe, but I don't know how to do this.”  He countered.  “Maybe I don't have DEPA watching me everyday, but that's different than me being able to take care of her from here on out.”

“You could take her to stay with your family or to the bunker.”

Dean covered his face with his hands.  The bunker wasn't a long term solution.  He thought about taking Akina to the camp.  She could stay with Sam's family- but she was his daughter and his responsibility.  If she was going to live at the camp, then he'd have to live there with her.  He'd have to raise her.  He might have to leave Jeremy- it might come to that if Anael was as serious about this as she seemed.

“Ana… that's not fair.”  He couldn't think of what else to say.

“I'm sorry, Dean.”

“It isn't fair to her.”

“I know.  I'm sorry, but I can't keep her.  I wish I could- she's so important…”

Dean cringed at the idea of finding the best way to describe one's child as ‘important’.  He felt a pang of guilt for judging Anael.  She was distraught over the entire situation and honestly maybe he'd quantify a loved one as important if they his sole responsibility.  He tried to remember when Sam was just a few years old, but then Dean had been a child himself, at least in some ways.  The whole thing was new & confusing.

Akina shifted a bit as she woke up and looked at Dean, whose face was only about a foot from her own.  Her eyes widened, then she glanced around part of the bedroom.  She wasn't quite strong enough to hold herself up so she couldn’t see behind herself.  When she didn't immediately see Anael she tried to scoot backwards away from Dean, but her arms gave out under her.

“Mommy?”  Akina called out in a little sob.  Anael hurried to climb onto the bed next to Dean so that Akina could see her.

“It's okay, Akina.  Just rest, you're safe.”  Anael reassured.

Akina calmed down at the sight of her mother, then resumed staring at Dean.  When she blinked he noticed her surprisingly long eyelashes, rosy cheeks, & curious eyes.  It even looked like she had Sam’s dimples.  Maybe he was a bit biased, but he thought she might've been the cutest kid he'd ever seen.  That was it- in that moment he knew he was never gonna be able to say no to that little girl.

“Hoo-man?”  Akina asked with a tiny furrow of her brow.

“Yes, this is your daddy.”  Dean's chest felt tight hearing Anael say the words.  “He's a human.”

Akina’s small hand touched Dean's chest and she said a word he couldn't make out.

“That's right, Akina.  Your daddy has a soul, just like you.”  Anael told her daughter, then looked over at Dean.  “I sometimes speak Enochian to her, but she knows some English too.”

“H- hi cutie.”  Dean’s voice broke at first, but he managed to recover before he fumbled his words enough to confuse her.

“Hi.”  Akina replied.  Her bright eyes blinked slowly at him.

“I'm gonna be helping out your mom.”  Dean spared a quick glance at Anael.  “So once you're feeling a little better you're gonna be staying with me for awhile.”

“Thank you.”  Anael whispered.

“I'm not doing this for you.”  He replied in a tone that he hoped was light enough that Akina couldn’t sense the tension between him & Anael.

“You still have my gratitude.”  Anael leaned in to kiss Dean, but he turned his head to the side, causing her to peck his cheek.  Anael pulled back and looked away in embarrassment.  “You're still with the human?”

“Yeah, for almost two years.”

“I hope she doesn't cause you problems with him.”  Anael waited a moment for him to respond, but he honestly had no idea what to say to that.  “I don't know how to thank you.”

“Just try to keep us safe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally planning on having one or two other scenes before this one in order to lay a bit of foundation for some minor stuff and also to break up what feels like a dense collection of Dean scenes. But after debating it for awhile I just really wanted to jump into this because not introducing Akina was preventing me from writing/posting a lot of content I'm looking forward to. So yeah, full steam ahead because there's a little fluffy scene that I love on the horizon and I damn well want to get there in the next few months.


	16. Akina

3/13/2012

Once Akina was feeling a bit better, Anael teleported the three of them to Dean’s apartment along with two loads worth of supplies including Akina’s crib.  Initially they were going to go directly to the bunker, but he hadn’t been there in over six months.  Unlike 2039, the bunker wasn’t left in a standby mode and wasn’t stocked with food & other necessities.  The whole process of getting the place functional enough for a person having to commit their attention to a toddler would probably take at least a day.  

They opted to have Akina & Dean stay at his place for a bit.  There was still about ten days before the DEPA was supposed to do a visual check on him.  Before then he’d try to get his things packed and figure out what other supplies he’d need.  Dylaniel was still running a few investigations to see how much Heaven actually knew about the nature of Anael’s reclusion.  After assessing that he could go take care to restarting and restocking the bunker.  

“Be a good girl and listen to your daddy.”  Anael told Akina after giving her a long hug.  She let go of Akina, then stood up and looked at Dean.  “You can pray for me, but it might take time for me to safely contact you.”

“I get it.”  Dean assured her that he understood he couldn’t come running to her whenever something was wrong.  Anael stared down at her daughter for a few seconds.  

“Goodb-”

“Ana, can you use the door?  I don’t want her thinking that anyone can just disappear right in front of her at anytime.”  He could see how that combined with whatever abandonment issues Akina might develop would be intensely anxiety producing.

“Okay.”  Anael nodded, acknowledging the concern.  She opened the door, stepped into the hallway, then smiled sadly at Akina.  “Goodbye.”

The sound of the door closing was crushing.  He pitied Akina, but it also brought back memories of the night Sam had left for Stanford.  Evidently his concern about abandonment issues came from a place of experience.

Akina didn’t understand what was going on, but she seemed to pick up on his discomfort.  Her little brow furrowed and she fidgeted with her pea green dress.  She took a few cautious steps further into his apartment, which was barely more than a bedroom with a minimal number of small countertop appliances and an on suite bathroom. She climbed up onto a dining chair at his tiny kitchen table, then sat, quietly watching him.

He’d babysat Kaylee, who was a little older than Akina.  He had some experience with this- but this was different.  It wasn’t for a few hours or a day.  Unless Anael changed her mind, this was permanent.  And it certainly felt like Anael was committed to her decision.  But as much as the whole thing terrified him, Akina was his daughter.  He couldn’t run away from his responsibilities anymore.  He wouldn’t let her be abandoned twice, regardless of what it meant for the rest of his life.

Dean was supposed to move in with Jeremy in a few weeks.  They had already started looking for a bigger place to move into once the lease on Jeremy’s studio apartment was up.  It was a big step, but neither of them could stand lying in bed worrying about the other anymore.  With all the urban legends about monsters & random attacks that had started with Lilith’s minions, the area had been changing over the last few months.  Just a week earlier a street proselytizer had warned them to be vigilant against unnatural things and brought to their attention something they both found deeply unsettling.  A local councilwoman with a history of supporting bigoted practices like conversion therapy was organizing a neighborhood watch- the night they found out about the watch group Dean had installed two deadbolts on Jeremy’s front door.  They were gonna move in together, into a bigger apartment in a safer area for them.

But now Dean had a daughter.  She would be staying with him, they were a package deal.  He’d either have to leave Jeremy just when things were getting serious or he’d have to tell Jeremy- He had no fucking clue how to begin explaining any of it.  To buy a bit of time to think, he texted Jeremy and said that he had to go out of town for a few days to check out a rare car.  The excuse had been used once or twice before, so he wasn’t surprised when Jeremy texted back wishing him luck.  Jeremy’s sign off of “Love you.” made Dean feel worse.  He slipped his phone back into his pocket, then turned his attention back to what to do with Akina.

He wanted to introduce her to Sam & the others, but part of him hesitated.  Akina didn’t know him and he was supposed to be her father.  If she met a whole group of new people in close succession- if they stayed at the camp for even just a day or two right now, would she understand that their relationship was supposed to be closer than with the others?  Anael had kept Akina a secret, which must’ve meant a lot of one-on-one time.  That was what she probably associated with a parent.  Kay & Dyl’s families had lived together and that appeared to have blurred the lines somewhat.  But he was living separate from Sam & Ruby.  And despite how unlikely it seemed, part of him still hoped to find a way to stay with Jeremy.  He decided to take a little time to let Akina get used to him before starting to introduce her to new people or moving her to a new location.

He sat down across from her at the little table.  She silently stared at him for a minute, then began dragging her fingertips along the edge of the table.  Her pink tennis shoes swung back & forth below her chair as she hummed a short melody that he didn’t recognize.

“That’s a cute song.  Do you like music?”  Dean asked, but she just blinked at him.  “Are you hungry?  Thirsty?  Can you drink milk?”

“Milk?”  Her voice was a bit uncertain.

“Not like nursing… um, have you heard of chocolate milk?”  Dean dug through his fridge.  After debating whether or not to risk having a problem with lactose intolerance, he pulled out a small carton of soy milk that he kept for Jeremy.  He poured it into the sippy cup, then added a diminutive amount of chocolate syrup.  The lid was placed on the cup, he shook it vigorously to mix it, then he handed it to her.  She had a sip.  Her eyes widened and a small smile spread across her face.  “You like that?”

Dean couldn’t remember the last time a nod had been such a relief to him.  He sat back down and watched her drink.  Tomorrow morning he’d call in sick to work, then check with Tamara to confirm that there was a big enough window in his surveillance to take Akina to the store to buy some more appropriate food.  While he was working on his to do list, Akina stopped drinking and muttered something that he didn’t understand.

“Was that Enochian?  I don’t know that language.  I only speak English.”  He said a bit discouraged at their inability to communicate.  Kaylee had learned to speak faster than expected and he couldn’t remember how quickly Sam had spoken, so he didn’t know what was typical.  He couldn’t help but remember Kay’s brother Tom mentioning that Dylaniel was a bit delayed in his development.  Though it was entirely possible that Akina just didn’t have English as her primary language.  He smile at her, then tried some other phrases that she might recognize.  “Are you tired?  Do you want to play?”

“Play.”  Her eyes lit up a bit at the suggestion.

“Okay, playing is something I can do.”

Dean looked through a pile of toys and put some in a small clearing on the floor.  Akina walked over, then sat down.  She picked up a toy horse and started making it run around.

He watched her playing.  She had an innocence & vulnerability that he hadn’t appreciated in other children.  He’d helped other people take care of their kids, but this was completely different.  When push came to shove, she was his responsibility- only his responsibility now.  He might have the rest of the family as a resource, but every minute of every day, she had to be his priority because the fact was that no one else was about to do that for her.  She held out the horse to him.

“Play?”  She offered.

“Thank you.”  He sat down on the floor next to her and accepted the toy.

“Wel-um.”

They played for what felt like an hour.  He tried to figure out what was going on in her young mind.  She seemed nice & well mannered.  To his relief, she appeared to understand a reasonable amount of what he was saying to her, though she didn’t have a large vocabulary herself.  Her curiosity reminded him a lot of Kaylee, though she wasn’t nearly as bold- granted she was in a strange environment with someone she barely knew.  

The thought of her eventually meeting her cousins made his heart ache a bit.  He wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d never interacted with another child.  She’d have Kaylee to play with- Once Anansi & Malek were a little older, the four of them would be able to do all sorts of things together.  Kaylee was already asking to have a tea party.  The thought of Sam & him watching their daughters have a little tea party together completely floored him.  There were so many things he wanted for her, to share with her.  He wasn’t prepared for that to just sneak up on him.  

But as much as he was looking forward to those perfect moments someday, in the present things weren’t there yet.  He needed to establish trust with her and she was probably starting with an emotional disadvantage.  She’d been highly sheltered and was going through a lot.  Sure enough, after playing for awhile she became quiet again and started looking around with a concerned expression on her face.  

“Mommy hi?”

At first he didn’t understand what she was trying to ask, but then Akina looked at the door.  He realized that ‘hi’ was probably the word she associated most with people arriving.  She wanted to know when her mom was coming back.  His mouth went dry when she looked up at him expectantly.

“No, mommy is going to be away for awhile.  That’s why you’re staying with me- with daddy.”  He tried to explain, though he didn’t know how to tell her Anael wasn’t coming back.  He didn’t even know if she understood concepts like permanence.  Akina stared at the door for a few seconds, then huffed out a little sigh.  He had to force himself not to tear up.  He didn’t want to upset her anymore.  “Can I give you a hug?”

“Hug.”  Akina agreed.  

Dean wrapped his arms around her.  She didn’t react at first, but after a few seconds she gripped his shirt and rested her head on his shoulder.

“I wish you didn’t have to go through this.”  Dean whispered.  “I promise that I won’t leave you.”

He could feel her chest let out a deep breath as she nuzzled into his shoulder.  She rubbed at her face and for a moment he thought she might be crying but when he let go of her she yawned.

“I think it’s bedtime.  Things will be better after some sleep.”  Dean picked her up and put her in the crib.  He took off her shoes, then changed her into pajamas.  When he bent down to put her shoes on the floor she crawled under the blanket completely unprompted, nearly tucking herself in.  He wondered whether Anael was familiar with the human custom.

“Did mommy do anything when she used to tuck you in?”  Dean asked.  “Story?  Sing?  Kiss?”

Akina just stared at him.

“Okay, I’m not sure what you used to do, so we’re gonna start our own tuck in procedure.”  He explained to the toddler.  “I’m gonna read you a story, then I’m gonna sing you a lullaby.  Most kids like that sort of stuff, but if you don’t just let me know.  We can figure this out, okay?”

Dean dug through the pile of gifts he was saving for his next visit to the camp and searched through the selection of comic books he’d been planning on giving to Tom.  He picked up an issue of Batman, but stopped for a moment.  After a few more seconds of looking he found an issue of Wonder Woman.  He sat down on the floor next to the crib, positioning himself so that Akina could see the brightly colored pages through the crib bars.

“On the island of Themyscira there lived the Amazons…”

* * *

Shortly after 2am, Dean woke up to the sound of Akina crying.  He quickly got up, turned on the light, then ran over to the crib to check on her.  She was sitting up in the crib, sobbing.

“What’s wrong?”

“Mommy.”  Akina replied through her tears.  

She extended her arms toward him.  He picked her up and hugged her.  She clung to him as he gently rocked her.

“It’s okay, daddy’s here.”  He kissed the top of her head.  “Daddy’s right here.”

After calming her down a bit, Dean grabbed an electric screwdriver and started working on the crib.  He removed one of the long sides of the bars, then screwed the crib to his bed frame with the open side facing the bed.  After checking to make sure he had in fact positioned the crib correctly, he turned a lamp so that its light was diffused on the nearby wall to act as an improvised nightlight.  

“Okay, we’re gonna do our little tuck in routine again.”  He informed her as he placed her on the bed with him.

She crawled into her crib and he draped the blanket over her.  He read another issue of Wonder Woman while laying beside her.  After the comic, he sang Hey Jude.  Akina was asleep before he’d finished the song.  He quietly climbed under the covers and fell asleep.  In the middle of the night Dean woke up to find her holding his hand while she slept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I've been posting a lot of Dean scenes lately, but I need to introduce Akina in order to get passed Spring 2012. Otherwise I'd have to be tiptoeing around an entire character's existence... Also, you better fucking believe that there's a tea party and I'm rally to get all the prerequisite content posted.


	17. Prompt: Sam & Ruby's Other Kids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked:  
> So do sam and ruby have more than 2 kids
> 
> Author's note:  
> In order to do this set of scenes, I had to jump ahead in time a few years, skipping some significant events. I’ve mostly sidestepped those in here, but part of one was inescapable. So ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

“It’s just a temporary measure.”  Ruby offered while holding Sam’s hand.

Sam clutched his duffel bag of clothes & supplies a little closer.  He fought an impulse to hurry a few feet ahead to wrangle the two year old Anansi and four year old Kaylee, who were playing something akin to tag as they made their way down the stone hallway.  He was worried something bad would happen- he wasn’t sure what, but something bad had to happen.  It was the nature of their circumstances.

For the first time in his life, he was in Hell.  He didn’t want to be there.  He didn’t want his kids to be there, but it was a precautionary measure- temporary.

Sam had violated his probation and before Heaven could get ahold of him, he’d been moved out of their reach.  Whatever threats Heaven might hypothetically make, Hell wasn’t going to extradite him for trial, but Kay had taken a team of her best people to resolve the situation on his behalf.  With a little luck and a whole lot of finesse, some sort of arrangement would be made allowing him to get back to his normal life.  Until then, the Abyssal part of the family was under house arrest inside the Citadel.  

“How long is temporary?  If negotiations only take a day, we’ll still be here for four months.”  Sam bemoaned.

“I’ve been down here for a few months at a time.  It’s not that bad.”

“The kids & I age.”  He reminded her.  “I don’t want them coming back older than Tommy.”

“If it comes to it, we can magically slow the aging process.”  Ruby voiced the option that neither of them was entirely comfortable with, then added.  “Anyway, Heaven wants you down here as little as possible and Kay & Shola are working on it as fast as they can.”

“I know.  I just wish I could help.”

“You’ve done enough.”  Ruby stopped him and stood up on her toes to kiss him.  He rested his forehead against hers as she caressed his cheek.  “Bobby & Dean are watching Tommy at the bunker.  Kaylee & Ani will get to spend some time playing with Mal.  Heaven wouldn’t dream of touching Kay.  Everyone is safe- think of this as a forced vacation.”

“To Hell.”  Sam commented, then noticed Anansi run around a corner out of sight.  “Shit!  Ani, come back.”

Sam rushed down the stone corridor, turned the corner, and nearly ran into a large humanoid with skin like poxed volcanic glass.  The creature quickly backed out of Sam’s way.  Sam scooped Anansi up, then held him close as he eyed the strange figure.  

“Sam, this is Gorda.”  Ruby introduced before saying something to Gorda in Abyssal.  Sam could recognize an introduction and a handful of other words, but he was by no means fluent in spoken Abyssal despite being proficient at reading it.  “Gorda is one of the local bean counters.”

“Nice to meet you.”  Sam managed through his disorientation at seeing a meatsuit-less demon for the first time- more than that, the physically intimidating thing was actually an accountant.  He tried to loosen his hold on his son, who’d started wriggling around indignantly.  Ruby translated Sam’s greeting and he immediately sensed an almost bashful sensation grow in Gorda.  Gorda gave him a flustered half-bow, then hurried away, taking one last peek at Sam before disappearing through a doorway.

Ruby took Sam’s hand and guided him passed a few dozen more gawking demons.  Eventually their family reached a large pair of double doors that opened into a great hall.  The grey stone walls grew with enchanting purple & red vines that nearly reminded him of veins.  He supposed it made sense on some strange level, they were in the heart of Hell.  The massive gnarled white tree on the far side of the room was topped with the crimson blossoms Kay was so fond of.

Malek was sitting on a large patch of black moss off to one side of the hall.  There was a more human looking demon kneeling beside him, reading a book.  Around them stood three other demons- guards.  As soon as Kaylee saw her cousin she ran over to him to play.  Anansi tried to wriggle and push himself free with little bursts of undisciplined telekinesis, which Sam mostly countered.  Sam made Anansi count to five before putting him down to join the other two kids.

“Kay has a nanny?”  Sam asked Ruby as he watched Anansi attempt to tackle hug Malek.  Thankfully, Anansi had learned not to run at his immovable cousin headfirst.  Sam tried to discreetly check to see if his nephew’s spikes were a current hazard or if they’d been recently sanded down.  Luckily, the toddler prince seemed to temporarily lack sharp points.

“I think she has like five nannies.”  Ruby corrected, then started talking to the nanny in Abyssal.  Sam watched the conversation in hopes of gleaning something from the discussion.  

After barely a minute of conversation, there was a pointed cough a little ways off and Sam & Ruby turned towards the sound.  A stout brutish looking demon with granite like features tilted his head to the Seat.  Kaylee was seated on one of the armrests of the throne.  Anansi was standing on the seat of the throne evaluating the best route to follow Malek, who had already climbed into the branches.

“Kaylee- Ani- Don’t climb on that.”  Sam ran over to the tree and gingerly removed his kids while trying not to make contact with its surface. He knew the Seat wouldn’t hurt him, but there was something about it that felt like crossing a line- aptly like forbidden fruit.

“Uh… do we go after him?”  Ruby asked as she watched Malek shake a tree branch, raining down dozens of crimson petal to his cousins’ delight.

“He hasn’t fallen out yet.  It’s his strength.  It doesn’t take any effort for him to hang on up there.  I’ll port over and catch him if he slips.”  One of the guards commented.  He was nearly human in appearance- muscular tanned skin with black hair, though he was probably half a foot taller than Sam and had large black horns.  “But it’s not as though we can really climb up after him.”

“Sam, you feel like climbing a tree?”  Ruby smiled at him.  The nanny called out to Malek in Abyssal, causing the boy to obediently start descending the tree.  “Looks like the toddler wrangling team has things under control.  If you want to, you could let them watch the kids for a bit and you could do some studying or supposedly this is a playground for your powers.  So it might be the best place to exercise.  And hopefully you’ll have a little fun while you’re at it.  You need to loosen up a bit.”

“I guess it’d be a good chance to try some stuff with my powers away from the kids so that they don’t get hurt if I mess things up.”  Sam admitted reluctantly.  “But what if the kids need us?”

“Almost everyone here can teleport.  The nanny can send someone for me in like two seconds.”  Ruby answered, then amended.  “Let me show you the archives and where the quarters are, then I’ll pop back here to watch the kids for awhile.”

“I… I’m…”  Sam wasn’t sure how comfortable he felt leaving his kids alone with a demon nanny and a few warriors of Hell.  He knew enough demons that at least it wasn’t entirely an issue of species.  It was more that he didn’t know them or their skill at watching children- Granted Kay trusted them with her son.  Also, Ruby had taken the children to Hell before and presumably had needed someone to help her with the kids.

“The children’s safety is my highest priority.”  The tall guard assured Sam.

“It’s not personal or anything.”  Sam clarified.  “Sorry, I’m just a little nervous leaving my kids alone with strangers.”

“I understand.”  The demon stated.  Sam could feel a strange sort of sincere sympathy coming from the demon.  He extended his hand to Sam.  “I’m Joseba, Knight Captain of Hell.”

“You’re Joseba?”  Sam said in surprised realization.  Kay had talked about the Knight a few times because of his combat skill, but she’d also mentioned him having a crush on her.

He could feel Joseba get a little nervous at the fact that Sam had heard of him, though the Knight didn’t react physically at all.  He wasn’t sure why Joseba would be nervous.  Surely Kay’s colleagues expected her to relay a certain amount of information about her work to her family.  Her work was common knowledge, her family was the more secretive topic-  Sam glanced at Malek.  Joseba looked over his shoulder to check on the kids, but when nothing was out of the ordinary a small sort of embarrassed concern flared in Joseba- it was the silent anxiety of a man suddenly found out.

“Thank you for your help saving me back at the plant.”  Sam didn’t mention Malek, to Joseba’s relief.

“It’s my duty and pleasure.”  Joseba nodded respectfully.

“If the kids need anything let me know.”  Sam gave Joseba that little measure of trust.  “I’ll be in Lucian’s quarters after I grab something to read.”

Joseba gave him another small nod and Ruby a half bow before turning his attention back to the kids.  

“That was a fast turn around.”  Ruby commented after they’d exited the throne room in search of the archives.

“Yeah, I…”  Sam leaned closer to Ruby and lowered his voice.  “I’ve got this feeling that he’s Mal’s dad.  He isn’t gonna let anything happen to the kids.”

“Joseba?”  Ruby whistled in surprise.  “I guess Kay’s into the rough stuff.”

* * *

It’d been a week by Hell’s standards.  There was no word from Kay, though one of her underlings popped in on the fourth day to offer reassurance that a nonviolent meeting had started.  Ruby had her hands full with work, having to reinforce Hell’s defenses, though she made sure to spend several hours each day with the family.  Despite the fact that nourishment and sleep were unnecessary in Hell, Sam & Ruby insisted on having family meals and making the kids sleep in order to maintain some degree of normalcy.  Between those landmarks in the passage of time, Sam split his time between helping the nannies with watch the kids and studying on his own.

After dropping off a few scrolls at the archives, Sam went to the throne room to look for the kids, but they weren’t there.  Some sort of field trip had been scheduled to go see a newborn hellhound puppy, the invitation to which he’d immediately declined.  It may have been over half a decade since he’d watched Dean be shredded by one, but hellhounds were still a bit too much for him.  He’d have expected them to be back by then, though he admittedly had a trouble keeping track of the time in a place with no day-night cycle.  Anyway, knowing his kids they were probably trying to convince Joseba to let them keep it.

He walked around the empty throne room.  He’d never been in there alone before.  It was kind of liberating, not worrying about others watching him and comparing him to Kay or whatever ideal of him they’d built up in their heads.  

He walked up to the tree and stared at it.  For years he’d heard about it being some profound thing, but seeing it felt odd- it wasn’t a let down by any means.  The tree was beautiful & awe inspiring, but the way Kay talked about it… there was something more that he wasn’t understanding.  Maybe it meant more to her because of her personal history?  He touched the bark and it produced an enticing tingling in his hand.  Slowly, experimentally, he dragged his fingers along its bark as he walked towards the Seat.  

After a quick double check to make sure no one was watching him, he sat down.  The power was as familiar as home and more intoxicating than he had been expecting.  He could almost feel the fragile heartbeat of Hell itself- slowly gaining strength and growing.  There was life hidden away in the deepest shadows of the Abyss, finally sprouting in search of potential- maybe even hope.

It all started fitting together in a profound way.  Down there his powers felt more intuitive.  He could do more.  On some level he knew that Hell would grow at his beck and call.  He was one of its masters- that’s what Heaven had been so concerned about.  The angels hadn’t wanted him involved with Hell for so many reasons, but among them was the lesser appreciated fact that he was one of only two adults that could elicit a change in the realm itself.  There had been a time when he might’ve felt ashamed by the association, but in the last six years he’d grown to accept that part of him- loving Ruby & their kids meant learning to embrace his demonic nature and the nuances of Hell.

He still didn’t want to become involved with Hell’s hierarchy, regardless of whatever smooth talking Kay was capable of in the ongoing negotiations.  Taking up a rank in Hell meant putting an even larger target on his family.  He supported Ruby in her position within Hell’s security- from the sounds of her nightly ramblings while nestled in bed, it sounded like she’d helped stave off at least a dozen major interplanar political incidents over the last year alone.  But he didn’t want to entangle himself in the Abyss.

His eyes settled on a small purple shrub on the edge of the kids’ play area and somehow knew that he could make it grow.  Politics we’re out of the question, but he was supposed to learn to control his powers.  Evidently, manipulation of Abyssal ecosystems were part of that.  It was even a power that he’d never had the chance to practice before.  He wasn’t sure how long he’d get the chance to experiment with it.  And as long as he did it out of the way of prying eyes, there wouldn’t be any public relations mess for Kay or Shola to clean up.

* * *

Sam heard the door to Kay’s quarters open and hurried out of the master bedroom to see if it was Ruby or Kay.  Ruby was just inside the front door, hanging up a satchel.  When he saw her rub her neck, Sam started giving her a quick massage.  She groaned in appreciation as she leaned into his touch.

“Are the kids here?”  She asked.

“Crowley’s bribing them with sweets and a show or something.”

“I kinda want to see what a demonic puppet show looks like.”

“He’s pacing himself, but he’s really going all out to get some positive association in their young brains.”  Sam observed.  “I think he’s about to ask to be called Uncle Crowley.”

“He doesn’t have a windowless van, right?”

“I can read him.  It’s just the hope of future nepotism.”  Sam assured, then gave her a kiss.

“You wouldn’t believe the meeting I just had.  It’s like nobody reads a report until it’s ripened enough to get a stench.”  Ruby complained as she started digging through Kay’s alcohol cabinet.  She pulled a few decanters out, but discarded them after sniffing each.  A flask tucked away in the back had a slightly more appealing scent, so she helped herself to a few swigs.  “Speaking of reading, how’s your homework going?”

“I actually didn’t read anything specific today.”  A slightly self-conscious smile flicked on his lips.  “I was practicing my powers.”

He took her hand, then guided her around the corner and through an arched doorway into the master bedroom.  Kay had left her suite to their family while she was working topside.  The kids were stay in Malek’s bedroom and Sam & Ruby had Kay’s room.  They’d tried to be courteous guests, but Sam had taken some liberties with Kay’s decorative plant since it was located in the privacy of the bedroom.

When Ruby had left the suite that morning the collection of silver vines emerging from the stone fireplace had been no bigger than the fireplace opening.  Now it had spread out almost two meters in all directions along the floor & walls.  The vines were an almost iridescent blue, thickly interwoven, with numerous small indigo leaves & slender closed buds.

“I got a little carried away.”  Sam admitted.  “I’ll try to see if I can make it closer to what she had before-”

“You made this?”

“Yeah, Kay had mentioned that making Earth plants doesn’t work- that the only way to make them thrive is to make native plants.”  Sam gestured at the bizarre creation.  “So this is what I could manage with a few hours of trial & error.”

“Were you researching Abyssal herbology?”

“Not really.  I wanted to get to know what Hell had to show me.”  Sam explained.  “I didn’t have anything specific in mind.  I just wanted to make something beautiful.”

“I never would’ve thought Hell could make something beautiful.”

“It made you.”  Sam tucked a lock of Ruby’s hair behind her ear.

“You’re such a dork.”  Ruby whispered before kissing him, slowly at first, then more passionately.  Her lips curled into a mischievous smile.  “Does it have thorns?”

“No.”

“Only you would make something in Hell without thorns.”  She teased.  Ruby slipped off her shoes, then started prodding the dense mass of foliage with her toe.  After testing it a bit, she slipped off her maroon & black robes, revealing just her black bra & panties.  She took his hand and tilted her head toward the plush gathering of leaves.  “Do you have any idea how rare it is for there to be something naturally soft in Hell?”

He gently lowered Ruby onto the bed of budding vines.  With a quick glance to make sure the door was locked, he started taking off his shirt & jeans.  She smiled up at him as she stroked her fingers along the leaves, then her own fresh.  He knelt down, climbing on top of her.  His hand caressed her cheek, slid up passed her, then his fingers gripped the vines.  He leaned in, kissing her neck as he ground against her suggestively.

“Watch this.”  Sam whispered in her ear.  She hummed with pleasure and anticipation of whatever he had to offer.  Ruby watched in awe as the flowers bloomed in bursts of plum & white.  A sweet intoxicating scent surrounded them.

“It’s incredible.”  She managed through her shock.

“You deserve the incredible.”  He kissed her, gently nibbling and tugging on her lower lip with his teeth.  “If I can give you even just a taste of it-”

“You- you’re incredible.”  Ruby pulled his head down to her neck and breathed warmly on his ear.  Her hand slid down his body, then began stroking him.  “Now give it to me.”

He reached behind her to unclasp her bra as she pushed down his boxers.  The garments were tossed aside before he pulled off Ruby’s panties, throwing them over his shoulder across the room.

Laying there, completely bare surrounded by lush leaves & flowers, Ruby’s pale skin & dark hair were striking.  He smiled, realizing that the sight appropriately reminded him of Eve in the Garden of Eden- but her allure or temptation was pure, it came from a place of love.  She was perfect and he wanted to give her all of him and more.

He spread her legs, knelt down, then kissed her inner thigh.  She moaned as he started going down on her- licking, stroking, caressing.  When he slipped a finger into her, she bucked slightly with encouragement.  Her back arched as she came, but he tried to hold her down.  The sound of her voice, the taste of her, and the divine smell of the flowers almost overpowered him, but he didn’t stop.  Her body trembling at his touch.  He knew she was close and he wanted to hold her steady, but his hands & thoughts were preoccupied.  The vines below them shifted, cushioning Ruby and giving him better access to her.  

“Give it to me!”  She cried as she came again.

Sam was on her in an instant, slipping into her warm wetness with ease.  He fucked her with a primal enthusiasm.  She moaned and bit at his chest.  Her fingernails dug into his back as she greedily pulled him tighter to her.  Delicate vines ever so slightly wrapped around Ruby’s legs, gently spreading her wider.  Sam pressed deeper into her, chasing his high.  Each thrust shook the bed of flowers, releasing more of their sweet perfume, making him harder.  It felt like time & all sense of direction faded away.  The only thing in existence was their naked bodies embracing, grinding, pulsing- lost in some ancient & profound force.

Ruby cried out as he gripped her flesh and came hard in her, forcing her over the edge one last time.  When he was done he collapsed next to her.  They kissed tenderly for a moment, before looking around.  In their frantic passion, they hadn’t noticed that the vines had grown, climbing the walls & ceiling, drowning out the cold grey stone.  They laid in each other’s arms, engulfed in what felt more like a surreal jungle than a room in the middle of a fortress.

* * *

“We should probably go see how the kids’ indoctrination is going.”  Ruby said as she reluctantly sat up in the snug little nest that they’d made among the vines.  She started crawling around on her hands and knees looking for her clothes in the mass of foliage that had grown after the pair had stripped.  Sam chewed his lip, considering whether to just take her from behind, but she found most of their clothes before he could pounce.  Ruby started slipping on her bra.  “Good luck cleaning this place up before Kay gets back.  You’re gonna need a machete.”

“Maybe she’ll like it.”  He offered while struggling to cross the room in order to search for Ruby’s panties.  He had to duck down in order to not hit his head on the flowering vines hanging from the ceiling.  The bed hadn’t been entirely engulfed, but that was almost all that could be said for restraint.  Sam grabbed the panties and tossed them to Ruby.  

“I hate to break this to you, but I think she probably wants her room back in functional condition.”

“I know.”  While dressing he considered his reluctance to cut up the plants.  He felt a connection to them- Maybe that feeling was part of Kay’s affection for Hell.  He’d helped make something beautiful in such a stark environment, he wanted to protect it.  Granted, more practical implications took priority over his impulses.  “Maybe Joseba can use that claymore of his and clean this place up in a few good swings?”

“I’ll find a recipe for an herbicide or something.”  Ruby offered as she finished getting dress.  She kissed him, then turned to walk toward the living room.  The lock on the front door to the quarters clicked and there was a gentle knock.

“Sam, Ruby,”  Kay announced herself before entering.  “You two decent?”

“Yeah.”  Sam replied while slipping his shirt over his head.  He hurried to join Ruby & Kay in the living room, hopefully out of view of the bedroom full of plants.  “How’d it go?”

“I think I’ve got everything more or less blown over.  Heaven understands that your hand was pressed and you did your best under the circumstances.  We might need to revisit a few details of your restrictions, but mostly they just don’t want you doing anything that would enhance the power of Hell’s throne.”  Kay explained.  “They’ve heard the rumors that Lucifer can talk to you and it scares the fuck out of them.  They’re worried that you dabbling too closely to Lucifer’s works that you’ll start messing up the interplanar ecosystem.  So hands off my chair.”

“Figuratively or literally?”  Sam asked, then smiled nervously.  “Because… I maybe already-”  

“You sat on my throne?”

“No one saw.  It was just for a minute or so.”  Sam said in his defense before hastily adding.  “I mean it’s the only chair around there.”

“It’s the very Seat of Hell.  There aren’t any other chairs in there because nobody else is supposed to sit in that room.”  Kay sounded almost offended.

“The kids were climbing on it.”  Ruby tried to mitigate Sam’s apparent faux pas.

“I don’t fucking believe this.”  Kay groaned.  “Has any other unprecedented shit happened while I was gone?”

Sam & Ruby glanced at each other, silently debating what to say despite the futility of denying anything.  Sam hadn’t even attempted to get the bedroom full of plants reined in before Kay had arrived.

“I was experimenting-”  Sam started.

“With what?”  Kay’s voice was distinctly unamused.  He pointed to the archway leading to the rest of her flat.  When she peeked around the corner into her room she just froze.

“How long did it take you to make that?”  Kay asked after far too much quiet contemplation.

“Maybe six or eight hours.”  Sam said.  “Is that normal?”

“That’s fast- not like Alex or Sadie fast, but still.”  Kay chewed her lip.  “Maybe it’s because our foliage is more active- I’ve been working it for years.  It’s nowhere near self-populating, but it’s at least healthy.”

“It felt like I was just helping it along.”  Sam offered as Kay turned to her alcohol cabinet in search of a stiff drink.  “I just wanted to make it more… alive- if that makes sense.  Did I just fuck up Hell’s ecosystem enough to piss off Heaven?”

“I don’t think they’ll be able to tell what’s happening with our flora, unless something crazy happens.  Though I don’t even know what the baseline is at this…”  Kay stopped talking and stared at the flask on the counter or her miniature bar.  She picked it up and shook the flask to check its degree of emptiness.  “Did one of you drink this?”

“I had a long meeting and maybe needed a drink afterwards.”  Ruby answered.

“It’s only flavored to be like scotch.  It’s my fertility elixir.”  Kay stated.  Sam could almost hear Ruby & his stomachs drop.  “How much did you have?”

“A few sips.”  Ruby looked at Sam.  “I’ve got to go find Morrison.”

“Wait, did you two have sex?”  Kay asked, earning two grimaces.  “In my bed?”

“No-”  Sam assured.

“In the plants.”  Ruby added on her way out the door, causing Sam to purse his lips in embarrassment.  Kay glanced back at the bedroom that was largely consumed with foliage and groaned.

“I’m having all those vines burnt.”

* * *

“This is wonderful.”  Morrison exclaimed while examining a series of vials containing Ruby’s blood mixed with other reagents.  Sam, Ruby, & Kay were less enthusiastic about the whole thing.  Kay hovered to one side of Morrison’s workbench, trying to parse the various tests that had been run.  Sam & Ruby opted to sit down while waiting for the results- neither of them was prepared to get ambushed with the news that they was expecting and any resulting weakness in the knees.

“So I’m guessing I’m pregnant?”  Ruby asked.

“Oh, yes.”  Morrison confirmed without even looking up from his work.  Ruby sighed as Sam placed his hand on her knee in reassurance.  It wasn’t that she was disappointed, it was just sudden.

“Guess number two:  Whatever anti-hexing magics are in place on the royal quarters, it’s enough to overcome a voluntary grade 4 self-repairing hex?”

“It’s hard to say since it was a voluntary hex.  I suspect the fertility elixir helped.”  Morrison speculated, then looked over at Ruby.  “How much of the elixir did you take?”

“I think I probably had three or four sips.”

“The normal dosage is roughly equivalent to one sip.  I wonder what the threshold is for additional returns.”  Morrison muttered to himself while making a note.

“I’m sorry.”  Ruby’s mouth moved for a second as she tried to process what he’d just said.  “What was that about additional returns?”

“Two embryos are in place.”

“Wait, twins?”  Sam asked- one kid was a surprise, two was a whole other magnitude of shock.  Ruby covered her face with her hands, then leaned back in her chair.  Kay stood up and looked like she was ready to start pacing.

“Isn’t this astounding?  Our species is capable of superfecundation.”  Morrison observed.  “This could drastically increase our viability.”

Sam couldn’t hear the rest of Morrison’s clinical musings.  They were pregnant again, with twins.  They already had three kids and it was fairly common for him & Ruby to babysit for Kay and/or Dean.  The idea of two more children was beyond daunting.

“You said you two were getting to it on the plants?”  Kay broached, drawing Sam & Ruby out of intimidating thoughts.

“Yeah.”

“Were you using your powers while you were…”  Kay waved her hand, clearly uncomfortable with the subject.

“Yeeahh.”  Sam slowly admitted- he wasn’t sure how he knew it was an admission instead of just a statement.

“I don’t fucking believe this.”  Kay groaned for what felt like the hundredth time in just an hour.  “My sister was conceived in Hell, while my dad was reviving Hell- waking up the native plant life.  She ended up having maybe a little extra Hell in her.”

“You mean like Mal?”  Ruby asked.

“No, Sadie was passable for human and didn’t have his strength, but she was gifted- not in like telekinesis or those powers.  She had this thing with nature, mostly plants-”

“Thing?”

“She could make them grow and said they made music- she was five.”  Kay quickly set their expectations for clarity on the subject.  “I’m not really sure what actually was going on.”

“That’s interesting, but how do plants necessarily mean a connection to Hell?”  Sam asked hoping to limit Hell’s interest in his not exactly hypothetical children.

“She could make Abyssal plants grow on Earth.  Lucifer & God are the only other people to have done that.”  Kay eyed Ruby’s abdomen.  “And you two just followed a very similar recipe, but doubled the batch.”

* * *

“You should try increasing your dosage-”  Morrison turned his attention to Kay.  It’d been two years since Ruby or Kay had been pregnant and with the discovery that demons could carry more than one fetus he’d become reinvigorated, much to everyone else’s dismay.

“I could barely stand one spike covered kid rolling around in me.  I’m not doing two at once.”  Kay immediately rejected the suggestion while shaking her head.

“It would help reinforce stability in the realm.”  Morrison countered.

“The royal line of succession doesn’t need twins in it.”  Kay argued.

“In roughly nine months there will be twins in it-”

“Hey, first of all my kids aren’t part of your system-”  Sam started to correct Morrison.

“Of course they are.  Until prince Malek is old enough, you’re the first-”  Morrison began replying, but Sam wasn’t having any of it.

“I’m not-”

“After the political tiptoeing that I just got done with, Heaven is gonna be beyond pissed off if Sam touches the throne.”  Kay stated, then amended.  “Tries to rule.”

“After prince Malek, your daughter would be the next-”  Morrison tried to run through the chain of succession after Sam was excluded.

“Kaylee isn’t going-”

“Obviously, she’s too young now, but when she’s older.”

“Morrison, stop- just stop talking or you’ll seriously be risking your life.”  Ruby warned her Archdemon.

“We aren’t having that old talk right now.”  Kay agreed.  Sam couldn’t imagine how many times she’d gotten into arguments about the line of succession.  Malek helped clarify the situation, but until he was older everything was a bit precarious.

“Anyway, Ruby & I haven’t even talked about whether we’re going to have any more kids.”  Sam said what he thought was a reasonable statement, but Kay facepalmed outside of Morrison’s field of view.

“You can’t be suggesting…”  Morrison looked horrified at the idea that they might not let the pregnancy continue.  Sensing Morrison’s strong opinions on the subject, Sam moved to stand between the Archdemon & Ruby.

“Whoa, hey.  Let’s not be rash.  Nobody needs to get flayed.”  Kay interjected.  “We have time.  Let’s all calm down.”

“If you don’t want more children, you can give them to the realm-”  Morrison started.

“I’m not giving away my kids and I’m sure as hell not giving them to Hell to be turned into some sort of contingency plan.”  Sam said while trying not to yell.

“Sam, don’t hurt him.”  Ruby spoke in a soothing voice while taking his hand.  “He’s a tactless dick, but he’s just trying to come up with suggestions.”

“Morrison, could you excuse us for a moment?”  Kay requested.

“Certainly.”  Morrison replied after a moment’s hesitation, then nodded and exited his office.

“Listen, I don’t care if you guys decide to keep them or not, but if you aren’t then it’d save all of us a whole lot of political trouble if you wait a few weeks and then miscarry.”  Kay told them pointedly.  “It’s a thing that happens.  Nobody’ll be able to say anything.  You understand me?”

“Yeah.”

* * *

Sam & Ruby were laying in their bed at home.  It was a chill winter night and they were spooning under a heavy down blanket after putting the kids to bed.  Sam’s hand slid from her belly button, down to settle on her lower abdomen.

“We need to talk about them.”  Ruby observed.  

In the two weeks since finding out that they were expecting they hadn’t told anyone for fear that it’d make it harder if they decided to end it.  Though, thanks to Ruby’s periodic trips downstairs, she was almost nine weeks pregnant.  They’d reached a mutual understanding to not talk about it until the had some time to process it- but Sam kept waking up to find himself spooning her with his hand protectively on her small belly.

“What do you want?  You’re the one that has to lug two babies around- that and you’ve got your work and Morrison will keep breathing down your neck.”

“What about you?  You’re already juggling Kaylee & Ani most of the time.  Imagine two more, but with more powers.”

“At least it doesn’t sound like we’ll have another telekinesis baby.”

“Yeah, instead they’ll be floramancers.”

“We’d finally get that herb garden we’ve always wanted.”  He joked, earning a chuckle.

“There are easier ways to make fresh pesto.”

“I don’t know.  We both have black thumbs.”

“Do you want the kids?”  Ruby whispered.  “Because once they start kicking me with their little tadpole flippers, then I think I’m basically gonna be decided.”

He buried his face in Ruby’s hair and took a deep breath of her comforting scent.  Nothing made him happier than the peace he found in Ruby & their family.  Maybe it was shortsighted & selfish, but he wanted to keep the twins.

“After these two, I’ll get a vasectomy or whatever we need.”  He offered in some attempt to be more cautious going forward, thereby mitigating the imminent risks involved in the present.

“If any of the Archdemons find out you got snipped there’ll be a revolt.”

“They’d lose that fight.”  Sam smiled, then caressed her abdomen.

“Do you think we can trick Dean into agreeing to babysit before we tell everyone?”  Ruby nearly giggled at the thought.

“Even if he agreed to it, I don’t think I’d risk him watching all the kids alone.”  Sam kissed her earlobe.  “The kids are old enough to follow instructions, but they’re also conspiring more.”

“I don’t know, Akina would probably protect him.”  Ruby rolled onto her back to face him.

“Fifty-fifty odds that when push comes to shove she swears fealty to Kaylee.”

“Our girl is a charmer.”  Ruby smiled.  

“What do you think?  Boys? Girls?  One of each?”

“Two hellions.”

“They’ll be right at home.”  Sam whispered as he leaned in to kiss her tenderly.  His hand slid further down her abdomen, eliciting a flirtatious hum.

* * *

“Another push.”  Castiel instructed.

Ruby groaned loudly as Sam held her shoulders.  The cries of a newborn filled their bedroom, but Castiel barely had time to clean and wrap it in a blanket before the second baby started coming.  Sam let Bobby hold the first baby while he continued to support Ruby.  It only took three strong pushes before the second newborn was out and crying.

“Congratulations, the women in your family now outnumber men.”  Castiel announced before holding up the second cleaned and swaddled baby.  “They’re both female.”

“Awesome.”  Ruby’s voice was fatigued, but she had a broad grin on her face.

“You want to hold them?”  Bobby asked, handing the first one to Sam.  After Castiel healed Ruby, he handed her the second one.

Both babies were smaller than Kaylee & Anansi had been.  They both had long elegant fingers & dimples, but there were several notable differences.  The first girl had sandy blonde hair with dark brown eyes that looked almost black- for a moment Sam thought they were solid black, but upon closer inspection he could see a little white around the edges.  She has Ruby’s nose and tiny smirk.  The second girl had dark brown hair and bright green eyes like her uncle Dean.  She had impressively long & dark eyelashes.  And her nose and mouth had a distinctly Sam quality.

“Hello, Layla.”  Ruby greeted their blonde daughter.

“I guess that makes you, Maya.”  Sam told their daughter with dark brown hair.  “Hi, cutie.”

“Thank god they aren’t identical.”  Dean sighed.  “Your kids are trouble enough without them being able to impersonate each other.”

“Like Akina is a perfect little angel.”  Ruby countered.

“Almost, actually.”  Dean agreed smugly, earning matching almost imperceptible eye rolls from Castiel & Dylaniel.

“You’re such a fucking softie.”  Ruby teased.

“One minute thirty seven seconds.”  Dylaniel told Kay, then extended his hand to her.

“I bet Dyl that the kids would be at least five minutes old before they heard their first ‘fuck’.  I had too much faith in the sanctity of the moment.”  Kay explained as she pulled an ancient looking coin from her pocket.  “I’m gonna get that back.”

“Do you want to wager on which one says fuck first?”  Dylaniel suggested.

“Close the bookie’s and watch the language.”  Sam told the cousins, then sat down on the bed next to Ruby so she could see Maya better.  “Dean, can you let the kids know it’s okay to come in.”

Dean had barely stepped out of the bedroom before the onslaught began.  Tom was the only kid that didn’t rush into the bedroom.  Kay swooped in, picking up Malek before he could accidentally do any damage in his excitement.  Kaylee wisely skirted the action, approaching the bed from a different angle.  Akina grabbed her dad’s hand and dragged him back into the overcrowded bedroom.  Anansi ran into the room at full speed, managed to dodge several human obstacles, and leapt for the bed, but Sam telekinetically caught him before he could jostle Ruby & the twins.  

“I’m a birdie!”  Anansi exclaimed while hovering in midair, then looked down at his new sisters.  “They’re the babies?  Hi, babies.”

Sam gently put Anansi down on the bed, next to Kaylee who had climbed up.  Tom opted to stand beside the bed, giving Ruby a half hug.  She pecked a kiss on her oldest son’s cheek.

“This is Maya, and that’s Layla.  They’re your sisters.”  Sam told his older children.

“Tommy, looks like you’ll have two more draftees for your cricket team in a few years.”  Ruby suggested.

“We’ll be unstoppable.”  The twelve year old grinned.

“Why are they so little?”  Akina asked from her vantage point in front of her dad.

“People start off little and they keep getting bigger until they’re adults.”  Dean explained.

“Did I start out little like that?”  

“Yeah.”  Dean put on a smile, as he crouched down and hugged his daughter.

“They got spots.”  Akina observed.

“They have spots.”  Dean corrected absentmindedly.

“That’s normal.”  Dylaniel assured everyone, then added for the young nephilim’s benefit.  “Humans can’t see those markings.”

“Let me see.”  Kaylee blinked her eyes black and started staring at her sisters.  Anansi followed her lead, then started inspecting the twins.  Kaylee lifted Maya’s arm to look at something and pointed to the skin under the newborn’s armpit.  “What does this do?”

“Don’t poke your sister.”  Sam told Kaylee & Anansi.  “We have to be very gentle with them until they get bigger.”

“They pretty.”  Malek offered meekly.

“Thank you, Mal.”  Ruby replied, earning a bashful smile from the little prince.  Kay gave her son a kiss, then carefully put him down.

Layla & Maya were passed around by the adults & Tom for an hour or more.  Anansi attempted to insert himself into the queue, but was convinced to wait until the babies could support their own heads.  The fatigue of twenty five hours of labor got the better of most of them after the initial adrenaline had worn off.  Anansi & Malek had tried to crawl under the bed, but one of Malek’s back spikes hit the bed frame, shaking the whole bed.  Instead the boys opted to play on the foot of the queen bed, eventually tuckering themselves out and falling asleep in an objectively adorable heap.  Dean fell asleep in an armchair with Akina & Kaylee dozing on his lap.

Sam carefully helped Ruby out of bed so as not to wake anyone.  They carried their Layla & Maya into the nursery, then tried out their modified bedtime ritual.  When both girls were put down in their cribs, Sam embraced Ruby from behind so they could both watch their daughters.  He pulled Ruby’s hand to his lips and kissed the back of it.

“How long do you think we can keep Morrison away once he hears they have invisible spots?”  Sam asked.

“It depends on how good my wards are.”  Ruby joked.  “Does the spots thing worry you?”

“Do Ani & Kaylee have them?”

“No.”  Ruby answered, causing Sam to hold her a bit tighter.  

“Our family’s special.  There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Two days later, Sam took one of his customary mind-clearing evening walk around the edge of the camp.  When he passed by his family’s cabin he noticed a cluster of pale purple aster growing around the nursery.  He knelt down to study the flowers.  They hadn’t been there the day before.  With a little nod to himself, he picked a handful of them, then wrapped one of the bracelets Kaylee had made him around it to make a small bouquet and went off to find Ruby.


	18. Fic Request: Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anonymous asked:
> 
> Sam, Ruby, their Baby daughter, and nightmares. Pls

He was in the cage again.  

Sam could feel his pulse rising as his hands began shaking.  The drab grey walls, the fluorescent lights, the bars confining him far from any means of escape—the sight of them made him feel faint.  He was trapped in that damned cell in the power plant, maybe once more waiting for the last seal to break and the world to end. Worse than the imprisonment, he couldn’t get to his family.  That gnawing ache grew inside him, that fear and guilt over his own helplessness was revived.

“Welcome back,” said a faintly familiar voice.

He looked around the empty room made of concrete and metal.  Nobody else was in there, not even Lilith. He was alone—well, that wasn’t true.  The voice was there. It had been real, or at least he’d heard it…. Sam’s heart started beating faster.  It was Lucifer speaking to him again. The Archangel had somehow gotten back into his head. Somehow he was trapped and prisoner to Lucifer’s words once more.

Sam hurried over to the bars, then gripped two in an attempt to melt them with the First Light, but nothing happened.  Looking down for the first time, he noticed that he was wearing a set of warded handcuffs. He tried unsuccessfully to slip them off or break them against the bars, but all his desperate effort only left him bruised and disheartened.

“That’s a bit melodramatic, isn’t it?” Lucifer critiqued as Sam hit the cuffs against the cell door’s lock in frustration.

“Unless you’re helping me shut up.” Sam told him.

“Oh, I won’t be helping you this time.  I’d rather just see where this goes.”

While Sam was finagling the cuffs, the skin on the interior of his right wrist began splitting, slicing itself open from the inside out.  A series of slashes formed across the veins and muscle, severing them. He was about to reluctantly ask Lucifer if he knew what was happened to him, when he recognized the wounds.  It was the injury that Abaddon had inflicted on his arm, in its state prior to his first surgery. Blood dribbled freely from his forearm as he tested his fingers, which were barely responsive thanks to the many cut tendons.

“You mortals are so fragile,” Lucifer observed coolly.

Sam tried to apply pressure to the wound in order to slow the bleeding, but the handcuffs limited his range of motion.  He looked around for something to help him bandage the wounds. On a table against the far wall outside of the cell, there was a plastic tub full of his belongings.  The silvery, teardrop-shaped necklace was visible pressed against the clear container and the for a moment he was distracted by it.

Without warning, there was a screeching cry and the rumble of an explosion in the distance.  Somewhere beyond the walls of his prison there was a battle taking place. Through some intuition he could tell it was a conflict between Heaven and Hell.  It wasn’t the same fighting from before—this was new. This wasn’t posturing culminating in a brief encounter. This was something more encompassing, more pressing… and his family was caught in it.  Somehow he knew it with every fiber of his being.

The world was spiraling out of control.  They’d failed. There wasn’t any peace left across the three planes.  There wasn’t any hope. Despite all their effort and suffering, nothing had been saved for his family, for his daughter.  Her future was a bleak iteration of Kay’s home. His daughter would live her whole life listening to the howling screams of war that he could hear approaching from the distance.  It was coming and he couldn’t protect her. Not while he was trapped— imprisoned and powerless.

Suddenly, the door to the room opened and Ruby ran in.  He could hear the sound of fighting coming from the dark hallway behind her.  She’d suffered several cuts and had a slight limp. When she reached through the bars to hug him, one of the bars touched her cheek, burning it.  The cell was iron. Despite the danger she continued forward and kissed him through the barrier, ignoring the burns she was acquiring.

“There’s a key for the gate.  The guard had a key last time,” he told her.  “If you can find—”

“Sam, there’s no time,” she cut him off.  Her eyes were longing and had a desperation that he rarely saw from her.  “You need to use your powers to get out.”

“I can’t.”  He held up his arms to show her the handcuffs.  “I can’t use them with these on.”

“They aren’t real,” she replied while pushing his arms down out of his view.  “You need to get out there and fight. We won’t make it without you. You have to—“

Before she could finish, five angels rushed into the room and tackled Ruby, burying her in a dogpile.  When they’d gotten ahold of her, one of the angels grabbed her hair, yanking her head back in order to look at her face.  The angel glanced at Sam, then nodded at some realization.

“She’s the one,” the angel informed his siblings.  “Take her, but don’t damage her.”

“Wait!” Sam pled, though none of the angels paid attention.  “We had a deal with Heaven. You can’t take her.”

Prior to leaving the scene of Lilith and Raphael’s deaths, a deal had been negotiated for Sam’s conditional release.  Part of the onus for the agreement had been Heaven’s concern over his and Ruby being together. For a brief period it had seemed that Heaven would attempt to capture and forcibly separate them, but eventually with sufficient posturing by Hell, they’d both been released.  Though now, seeing angels knowingly holding Ruby as a prisoner, he was terrified that something had gone wrong.

The lead angel stood up from his position observing Ruby, then turned to face Sam.  “The deal has changed,” he stated coldly. “Your coupling is a threat to the security of Heaven.”

Ruby shook off the grip that the angels had on her, but the exit was blocked.  Without a way out, she instead tried to get closer to Sam. She lunged towards him, reaching out to grab the bars.  The iron burned her hands, but she didn’t let go as the angels tugged, trying to yank her free from the bars.

Sam hated to see her burning like that, yet he didn’t want the angels to take her away.  He reached out through the bars and grabbed her wrists as best he could while bound and with his right arm injured.  Her hands slipped from the bars, briefly clasping his hands in turn, but he couldn’t compete with the strength of five angels dragged her away from him.

“Sam!” Ruby shouted as she disappeared down the dark hallway.

He could hear her yelling for him in the midst of the sound of fighting.  She was in danger, being taken away to her own captivity by way of a war zone.  He began banging on the cage for anyone who could hear him to help him. The need to get to here was blinding and he barely even knew what he was doing.  Some instinct moved him to get out, to save his family.

His hands gripped the bars and the metal started burning his flesh, but he didn’t let go.  Smoke tendrils started rising, then he could feel the bars flexing, giving in his hands. He burnt through them in a flash of intense white light.  When his eyes adjusted, he noticed that the handcuffs were gone, which confused him for the briefest moment, but there were more important matters. He hurried through the newly made gap in the bars, then into the dark hallways of the complex.

“Why would Heaven want to take her alive?” Lucifer mused, completely unconcerned with Sam’s panic or the impossible feat he’d just accomplished.

He started running through the labyrinth that was lit only by the periodic flash of emergency lights in the distance.  She was out there somewhere. As he searched in the darkness, the walls and ceiling began cracking under the pressure of a battle pressing in on him.  He tried to use his powers to hold the corridor up around him as he looked for any sign of Ruby.

“You think that Heaven wants to use her, don’t you?” Lucifer speculated.  “They wanted both of you alive. Do you think it’s because you’re a breeding pair?  They’ve changed their mind now that they understand how important that is. When they realized what you two can produce.  I suppose that fear is reasonable.”

The suggestion made Sam stumble a bit.  The reason Heaven had feared him and Ruby being together was because they could have children— children that could kill angels, control Hell, and maybe even change the power dynamics across the three planes.  The pair of them were a threat to Heaven collectively, but so was any child they’d produce. In the dim glow of the emergency lighting, Sam looked down to see that he was holding Alex’s necklace.

“Sam!” Ruby’s voice echoed in a desperate cry through the halls.  He knew what she was going to say. “They’re after the kids!”

He started running.  The darkened hallways of the complex transformed into the moonlit night of the forest surrounding the camp.  He ran full out through the snow, racing to get home. None of the lights were on in any of the cabins. The cozy little sanctuary was eerie in its lifelessness.

The front door burst open before him, so that he didn’t have to slow down.  Tom’s room was empty, but that wasn’t where the danger was anyway. He could sense it—angelic power with a staggering presence.  He knew what it was after. Scrambling in his panic, Sam turned to look into the nursery. There was someone else in there.

Sam saw another version of himself wearing a white suit and hauntingly indifferent expression.  It was Lucifer, standing beside Kaylee’s crib.

Sam tried to throw him away from the crib with telekinesis, but he’d only managed to shatter the window in the far side of the room.  With an annoyed flick of the wrist, Lucifer threw him into the wall, pinning him.

“I can see why Heaven might want her,” Lucifer commented.

“Get away from her!” Sam yelled as he struggled futilely to pry himself from the wall.

As was all too common, Lucifer ignored him, and instead looked back at Kaylee, who had woken up at her dad shouting and began crying.  After a thoughtful pause, he began speaking to Sam without taking his eyes off her. “This would be fitting, wouldn’t it? For us to come full circle.  My agent killed your mother in order to make you. And in turn you’ve made this…” The Archangel paused for a moment to consider the peculiar infant. “This marvelous child for me.”

“If you touch her—“

Lucifer waved his hand at Sam.  Razor-sharp telekinetic force sliced across the width of his torso, cutting deep enough to spill large quantities of blood, but no organs.  Sam tried control the bleeding, with no success. Lucifer forced him further up the wall until his feet were dangling. The pull of gravity made the cut across his body tear painfully.

“It would be poetic, wouldn’t it?” Lucifer continued.  “For you to die like your mother, trying to stop me—trying to stop destiny.”

“I won’t let you,” Sam replied through gritted teeth.  “I’ll fight you.”

“No, you won’t.  You didn’t fight me before, and you can’t fight me now.”  The corner of Lucifer’s lips curled down at a thought. “Though, it’d be such a waste for you to die.  You’d make a fine vessel. Oh, the stories we’ve heard. But it’d be a shame to not indulge the parallel—I know.”

Lucifer disappeared, then reappeared holding Ruby by the neck.  She was being choked, suspended above the ground thanks to Lucifer’s height.  Her attempts to hit or kick him stopped when Lucifer squeezed her throat producing a loud pop and several cracks.  At the sound of Kaylee’s cries, Ruby weakly reached out towards her daughter, but Lucifer shook his head.

“No!”  Sam kicked and flailed, fighting against the force pinning him to the wall.  “Don’t do it!”

Lucifer threw Ruby onto the ceiling with telekinesis.  An unseen slice tore her open, spilling blood onto the nursery floor.  She tried to say something to Sam, but with her voice box crushed and the extreme blood loss, her mouth only barely moved—the only sound was their daughter’s cries.

“Her peril really would cause you so much pain.  A demon?” Lucifer asked Sam with a bit of academic surprise, but Sam could barely hear him over the panicked static in his mind.  “That’s good to know.”

Lucifer snapped his fingers and the nursery was engulfed in fire.  The flames spread out and up the walls, safely away from the crib, then made their way to Ruby.  The fire began consuming her and when it touched her heart her body flickered with orange light. Her partially charred corpse fell to the floor in front of Lucifer.   But as soon as she had died something changed.

The fire hissed as it extinguished on contact with a chilling gloom that filled the nursery.  Sam didn’t even notice the cabin darken as it’s warmth evaporated. He was too consumed with grief.  Gnarled, black, thorn-covered vines grew from the depths and climbed the walls unnoticed by him. His screams produced a cloud of condensation in the suddenly cold air.  He didn’t notice the change; he was too busy staring at Ruby’s body.

“Did you do this?” Lucifer gestured at their surroundings.  “You really do have some willpower afterall. But you also have weaknesses.”

The Archangel then picked up the crying infant, shaking Sam from his shock.  Lucifer examined the child with a clinical interest, then used the toe of his shoe to roll over Ruby’s partially burnt corpse for some sort of comparison.  His gripped Kaylee’s head and neck to hold her still, causing her to cry louder and more frantically.

Sam struggled with all his might to free himself from where he was pinned to the wall.  The more he fought the more blood drained from him making him weaker. He wanted to scream and rage against Lucifer, but his strength and focus was fading by the second and the Archangel was holding his daughter.  There wasn’t any guarantee that even if he could somehow land a hit on Lucifer while so hindered without accidently hurting Kaylee.

“Please.  Please, don’t kill her,” Sam begged.

“I wouldn’t dream of killing her.”  Lucifer offered a joyless smile. “You really have no idea how powerful an asset she is.”

“No!  Don’t—“ Sam started, but Lucifer and Kaylee were gone.

He fell to the floor, having been released.  Tears began welling up in his eyes, but he didn’t have time to stop and mourn.  His blood-covered hands weakly reached for the crib in an attempt to pull himself upright, though before he could everything became dark and cold.

* * *

“Sam.”  It was Ruby’s voice.  “Sam, wake up.”

There was the crash of breaking glass, then the distant sound of Kaylee crying.

He opened his eyes.  They were lying in their bed.  He clutched Ruby desperately, trying to find some stability and trying to figure out what had happened.  Their bedroom window had been knocked out. Cold winter wind was drifting in, but he was trembling for different reasons.

“You broke the window,” Ruby explained.

Kaylee was crying.

Sam hastily scrambled out of bed.  As he hurried down the hall, Tom opened his bedroom door to see what the commotion was about.  “It’s okay,” Sam told him with a small wave of reassurance.

“It’s just another bad dream,” Ruby assured Tom as she stopped for a moment to make sure he was alright.  “Don’t worry.”

Leaving Ruby to take care of Tom, Sam went into the nursery.  Irrational fear made him hold his breath until he saw that no one else was in there.  He picked up the crying infant and held her close. It was taking a fair amount of willpower to stop himself from tearing up.  He kissed her little forehead and rocked her softly until she wasn’t so upset. Ruby stood beside him, watching with a concerned, knowing expression.

“He was trying to take her,” he explained quietly so that Tom wouldn’t hear if the boy was lingering in the hallway.

“He didn’t get out.”  Ruby stepped forward, then touched Sam’s cheeks to soothe him and focus him on her.  “He’s still trapped in his cage.”

“I can hear him.”

Her eyes were thoughtful.  She’d heard that statement from him before and while it was easy for most everyone else to dismiss it, her brow furrowed betraying some worry.  “Can you hear him when you’re awake?”

“Not since the extra warding.”

“That should’ve stopped it.”  Her lips pursed a bit, then wavered.  “If you say that he’s really speaking to you, then I believe you….”

He knew that it didn’t make sense.  Ruby had worked with Gabriel and two other angels who were experts in vessel-angel communication in order to design the enhanced warding for him.  That should have been more than enough to keep out Lucifer since the last seal was still in place. Sam took a deep, calming breath and exhaled in a sigh.  “But they could be nightmares.”

“You went through a lot.  It’d make sense for you to have some trauma to show for it,” Ruby reminded him.  “Kay isn’t having any visions with him.”

“She didn’t talk to him.”  Sam’s guilt flared. “She didn’t let him in.”

“The last seal didn’t break.  You didn’t say yes. You didn’t break or do anything wrong.  You didn’t let him in.” She kissed him. “You were strong and you fought it.  Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“I just saw him….”  He shifted Kaylee to one arm, then pulled Ruby into a hug with the other.  “I’m scared.”

“I know you are.  It’s okay to be scared.”  She caressed his cheek. “But fear doesn’t make it more true or real.”

“What if Heaven decides that they don’t need the agreement?”  His throat was a bit tight. “What if it isn’t just him I’m scared of?”

“If anyone tries anything, then they’re gonna have to face us, and I pity them.”

  
  



	19. Fic Prompt: Was Anansi Planned?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anonymous asked:  
> Was anansi planned?
> 
> Author response:  
> I wouldn’t describe Anansi as planned as much as the predictable result of some recklessness. I wrote out a little bit below because it’s been a while since we got some Sam x Ruby smut.

As soon as Ruby returned home from Hell, Sam picked her up and began carrying her to their bedroom.  She started laughing softly at his forwardness. Ever since settling in the camp ten months earlier their sex life had gotten back to some level of normalcy, but it was still hindered a bit by living with two children.  So they took advantage of their opportunities, whenever they might arise.

“And to what do I owe this pleasure?” Ruby asked as Sam tossed her onto their bed.  She stretched, playfully exposing the flesh between her maroon t-shirt and black skinny jeans.

“Belda owed me a favor, so she’s watching Kaylee and Tom at her cabin for the evening,” Sam answered while locking the bedroom door despite the apparent privacy.  “I figure we have a few hours, unless you get called away on another crisis.”

Ruby took her cell phone out of her pocket, silenced it, then placed it on the nightstand.  “Hell can burn for a few hours without me.”

She lied back down and started undoing her pants as he climbed onto the bed to join her.  Sam helped yank off her jeans before starting to strip himself of his pants and shirt. Her lips curled into a mischievous grin when he took his shirt off.  She held up her hand, signaling him to stop briefly so that she could enjoy the sight of him in just his boxers kneeling between her legs.

While making him wait, Ruby slipped off her t-shirt to reveal her matching plum bra and panties set.  He appreciated those little aesthetic indulgences that she always managed to sneak into their lives. After giving him a few seconds to commit that moment to his memory, she unclasped her bra, tossed it to the side, then pointed down at her panties.

“Are you going to do something about this?” she purred.

He pulled the insignificant amount of plum silk from her and spread her legs.  Leaning down he began licking her, caressing her. She held the back of his head, gripping his hair as she let out a moan.  At the sound of her pleasure, he slipped a finger into her while rubbing his tongue along her blissfully sensitive clit. Her back arched and she trembled with a wave of incredible tingling as she came.  She fell back onto the mattress, then gently pulled Sam up by his ear so that she could kiss him.

“God, you’re beautiful,” Sam breathed as he slipped off his boxers, then lied down beside her.

“And you—”  Ruby gasped as Sam pulled her to him, pressing his hard dick between their naked bodies.  “—are powerful.”

They kissed desperately, grabbing each other, grinding, and nibbling on tender flesh.  Sam rolled to be on top of her, then used his hand to gradually spread her legs. He kissed Ruby’s neck as he teased her by slowly rubbing his cock against her.

“Fucking hell,” Ruby groaned.  “Why do you have to be so good at this?”

“Well, thank you,” Sam replied with a bit of flattered amusement in his voice.

“Before you start—”  Ruby quickly interrupted before he could really show her what he had to offer.  “I learned something interesting today,” she attempted as an opener, earning a hum of interest from Sam.  “My contraceptive spell isn’t working.”

Sam froze mid-grind and leaned back so that he could look her in the eyes.  His cheeks were flush, disguising any otherwise loss of color. “Are you—”

“No.  No,” she hastily clarified.  “It’s just I found out the Seat has a sort of anti-hex field around it and it probably knocked out my spell a while ago.”

“Is it permanently undone or…?”

“I can put the spell back on,” she assured as her fingers played across his chest.  “It’s just that if I go back into the throne room it’ll get undone again.”

He’d watched her perform the spell shortly after they’d moved in.  The whole process had taken almost three hours. Putting it back in place certainly seemed like a chore.

“How often do you go to the throne room?” he asked, suddenly realizing that he wasn’t really familiar with what her work entailed.

“Every other day Earth-time.”

“That sounds pretty annoying.”  

He posture wilted slightly, discouraged by the hypothetical inconvenience to Ruby and what that might mean for their physical relationship.  But she pulled him back down to her and gave him a delicate kiss. His dick twitched reflexively at her tenderness. Ruby bit her lower lip knowingly, having felt the movement thanks to him being pressed against her clit.

“Yeah, that would be.”  Ruby’s fingers slid down his torso suggestively.  “I’ll try to find a better long-term solution, but maybe we could make due for a bit longer without it.  Fooling around for awhile. Maybe nothing serious?”

It’d been a long time since he’d strictly stuck to oral and petting, a style that called for a different routine.  He didn’t want to jump straight to a blow job because that could quickly end their evening of intimacy. So they rolled around the bed while making out, kissing, and teasing each other.  Ruby stroked him, playing with the head of his dick until he was almost to the breaking point. All the while he was fingering her and gently massaging her, making her cum a second time.

When he removed his fingers from her, Ruby began dragging the shaft of his dick along her clit.  He repositioned to be on top of her and started grinding against her. All the anticipation from the teasing was driving him wild.  It barely even registered in his mind that he was starting to well up with precum.

As he ground against her, he instinctually moved a bit too far and the tip of his dick fell down to rest against her pussy.  He didn’t pull away immediately and instead met her eyes. They were both panting, blushing with lust. Her face wavered briefly between contemplative and eager, soft lips moving slightly debating what to say.  But she didn’t settle on words. She spread her legs a bit more, taking him in ever so slightly.

His thumb caressed her cheek, then he kissed her as he gently, cautiously pushed into her tight pussy.  Her chest heaved and she moaned softly at the sheer size of him slowly overcoming her. In a moment of lucidity, she grabbed his ass and pulled him closer, pressing all of him into her.  He started thrusting into her with enough force to make the bed frame creak in protest.

“Nothing serious?” Sam groaned as he fought the urge to cum right then.

She drew his face down to her and bit his lower ear lobe, making him thrust even harder, then whispered, “look who’s talking.”

In that moment he didn’t care about the consequences.  She felt incredible. She was incredible. And more than anything he wanted to give her all of himself.  Anyway, they’d been without a contraceptive spell for months and nothing had come from it. What was the harm in another quick go or two?


	20. Fic Request: Disneyland Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous #1 said: OKAY SAW your disney PROMPT. RUBY. SAM. dean. Cas. KAYLEe. DIsney worldss  
> Anonymous #2 said: I meant to send this yesterday but I forgot. Could we have a little fluff with Ruby, Sam, Kaylee, dean, Cas (maybe Akina) going to Disney world?? 
> 
> Author Note: I decided to include all the kids so as not to trip me up too much with continuity issues of trying to include Akina. I thought about including Kay or Dyl, but there were so many characters to juggle already and they weren’t specifically requested… not that Dyl would willingly set foot in Disneyland. Also, I wrote for Disneyland instead of Disney World because I’m not nearly as familiar with Disney World. Lastly, this doesn’t quite fit the story line as I’m envisioning it for various reasons I won’t get into, but I’m happy to do a little “what if” to satisfy a request.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it :)

As a thank you for everyone’s help with taking care of Malek, Kay had arranged a family trip to Disneyland.  She had never been to the theme park herself, due to it having been abandoned shortly after the destruction of Los Angeles and the destabilization of the surrounding civilization—but according to everyone she asked in this timeline, it was a delightful place to take a family.  Though Dylaniel had predictably declined the invitation to spend the day surrounded by roughly 45,000 humans. 

Castiel agreed to come along to help wrangle the children and heal any scraped knees, despite the fact that he had intentionally kept some distance between himself and the Prince of Hell.  In preparing himself for the new experience of going to a theme park he had become mildly obsessed with Disneyland trivia. After stating the thirtieth “interesting fact” about the construction of the park while packing, Dean had adamantly declared that there would be no road trip and someone had better teleport them all there.

Kay had been planning on going with everyone, but at the last minute there was a diplomatic emergency.  Her security detail was only slightly relieved that she was staying in the safety of Hell, but they still insisted on covertly sending fifty bodyguards including four Knights to defend her son and the other Abyssal relations.  To no one’s surprise, Joseba and Mir were onsite and made themselves known to Sam and Ruby, though they didn’t risk crowding the family.

Rather than teleporting the family to the park entrance as they’d all expected, Castiel had made them all appear in one of the more secluded nooks in the back of the park.  It wasn’t exactly the traditional Disneyland experience, but Dean, Sam, and Ruby had to admit it was nice to avoid the long lines and security check. Dean was armed with knife strapped to his ankle, and Ruby’s purse contained a charm largely consisting of hard-to-explain baby bones.  On top of those issues was the fact that the four of them had to try controlling seven children between the ages of eight months and nine years, which meant any reduction in wait times was a blessing.

The general plan for managing the children was to divide and conquer.  It was a well established truth that Kaylee, Akina, Anansi, and Malek working together were more of a handful than the sum of their parts.  To reduce the chances of their little gang organizing some chaos, the plan was to divide the children into smaller groups, occasionally trading off children as needed.  But that technique was placed on hold in order to have all the children experience the tamest ride in the park as an introduction of sorts.

“The water-based dark ride It’s a Small World was originally created for your 1964 World’s Fair,” Castiel provided the first bit of trivia for the vacation as they got in line for the ride.

The building’s facade was made up to look like a psychedelic white, silver, and gold cityscape with clock towers.  Sam remembered it being less haunting when he’d first visited during his freshman year’s spring break. He only hoped the kids didn’t feel the same unease from the sight of it.

“How long has he been doing this?” Sam asked Dean about Castiel’s new interest in Disneyland trivia.

“The last two days.”  Dean pursed his lips slightly.  “At least he’s stopped beginning every sentence with ‘here’s another interesting fact’ or ‘did you know.’”

“I heard ‘64 was a good World’s Fair,” Ruby told Castiel while looking over the ride’s exterior with a new, more forgiving eye, then added with a little disappointment, “I was in Hell that decade.”

“I was in the transdimensional fade consisting of Heaven’s closest border to Earth during that time,” Castiel replied.

“I can never tell if they’re bonding or having a pissing contest,” Dean muttered to Sam.

“A bit of both,” answered Ruby.

Layla and Maya were babbling at each other in their side-by-side stroller throughout the line.  When Sam unbuckled the twins in order to take them onto the ride boat, the little girls leaned toward each other and became slightly louder, attempting to continue their conversation.

“They’re conspiring again,” Sam observed.

“We’re never gonna succeed in stopping them from conspiring.”  Ruby snuggled Layla, then kissed the top of her sandy blonde head.  “We can only hope that someday they speak a language we understand.”

They climbed into the pastel blue boat and began slowly floating down the water path into the building.  Tom sat in the first row of the boat with Kaylee and Akina. Behind them Dean and Castiel flanked Anansi and Malek.  Then Sam and Ruby shared the back row, holding Maya and Layla respectively. Their boat drifted by displays of dancing audio-animatronic dolls decorated as different ethnicities and nationalities in kaleidoscopic, colorful scenes.  The music was devastatingly catchy as much as it was painfully cutesy. Ruby shot Sam a sideways glance at the annoyingly cloying quality of it all.

“It’s a good first ride for kids,” he explained.  “No sudden movements or going up or down.”

“I don’t know, it seemed awfully racist,” Ruby commented while staring at the depiction of African dolls wearing very little and living in the wilderness with animals.

“To be fair.”  Dean turned in his seat to look back at her.  “There’s been a lot of racist stuff at Disneyland.  This is just a classic, so they’re phasing it out slower.”

“According to my research,” Castiel interjected.  “One of the most popular rides in this theme park is based on a movie entitled Songs of the South—“

“Cas,” Ruby cut off the angel.  “Don’t make me hate this place before I even finish my first ride.”

“What song from the South?” Tom asked, only partially having heard the conversation.

“Tommy, I promise I will explain this to you when we get home, but I want you to trust me that you’ll have a better vacation if we don’t get into it now, okay?” Ruby suggested the compromise, earning a nod from her eldest son.  “Cas, wholesome trivia from here on or we’re angelically exorcising you back to Heaven.”

“Rube don’t joke around like that,” Dean replied. “Then we’ll be outnumbered by the kids more than two to one.”

Castiel opened up his mouth to say something, but Sam suddenly sat upright, jostling the boat slightly.

“Shit!” Sam muttered before pulling a toy giraffe from the baby bag and handed it to Maya, distracting her.

“Oh fuck, what’d she do?” Ruby groaned, then looked around her cheerful surroundings for the anomaly.  

Sam tried to nonchalantly tilt his head at a set of dolls dancing in a garden full of flowers.  Upon closer inspection, some of the large fake flowers were being overtaken by vines that grew up between the cracks of the set pieces.

“Okay, so the twins don’t go on anymore rides featuring plant decorations where they can get inspiration,” Ruby dictated.

“Keep them the hell away from the Jungle Cruise,” Dean warned.

“What’s that?”

“A couple minute long boat cruise on a fake river surrounded by real plants,” Sam explained.

“I thought theme parks were supposed to be all rollercoasters and hard plastic.”  Ruby pinched the bridge of her nose. “We’re gonna destroy this place by the end of the day.”

* * *

After finishing It’s a Small World, the children were divided up to go on mini adventures with different chaperones.  Dean and Castiel took Akina and Tom to go visit some princesses. Ruby took Anansi and Malek to go on some younger kid rides in Fantasyland.  And Sam attempted to entertain Kaylee with a few stage performances while he watched the twins for any dabbling in the local flora or fauna.

As her party walked around the park, Akina bounced around enthusiastically.  She occasionally stopped to swoosh her sparkly blue princess dress, which was set off by her brown boots, plastic Wonder Woman bracers, and a belt holding her sheathed toy sword.

“Which princesses do you want to go meet?” Tom asked his young cousin while she ran a circle around him.

“Can I meet Wonder Woman?” Akina asked excitedly, looking between Tom and her dad.

“Sorry ‘Kina, but Wonder Woman isn’t here.”  Dean shrugged apologetically. “There’s Snow White, Rapunzel, Ariel—”  Dean and Castiel exchanged a quick look at the name of Castiel’s sibling who had sided against them.  “Mulan—“

“Mulan!”  Akina’s bright green eyes widened with awe, then started grabbing at her sheathed toy sword.  “She’s so cool!”

“Okay, ‘Kina.  Come here for a sec before we go find Mulan.” Dean instructed as he knelt down to be eye level with her when she was in front of him.  “Time for me to check your sword.”

Akina pulled her little, dull, wooden sword out of its felt sheath, then handed it to her dad.  Dean examined the toy for a few seconds to make sure it hadn’t accidentally become blessed by the five year old Sword of Heaven.  When he was satisfied, he held up the toy sword in front of his daughter, then looked at her very seriously. “What are toys for?”

“Playing,” Akina replied.

“And what’s the number one rule of playing?”

“Don’t hurt people.”

He gave her a hug and kiss, then handed over her wooden sword.  “That’s my girl.”

“Dad!  Dad!” Akina started exclaiming and jumping up and down while tugging on Dean’s shirt before he could even stand up.  She pointed at Tinkerbell, who was walking along a path towards them. “Enchantress has four wings!”

“That isn’t Enchantress.  That’s Tinkerbell.”

“She has four wings too!”  Akina bounced again excitedly.  “Can I show her my wings?”

“Oh, ‘Kina,” Dean started, struggling to figure out a way of convincing her not to manifest her wings in public.  “Tinkerbell is wearing fake wings—”

“Fake wings?”  Akina’s expression was pure shock.

“Yeah, because she actually doesn’t have wings, but she really wants to have beautiful wings like yours.”  He patted her shoulder. “And showing her your wings might make her feel sad that she doesn’t have real ones.”

Akina nodded at her dad, then started running towards Tinkerbell.  Dean chased after her, unsure what he’d do if her wings suddenly popped into existence in front of hundreds of people.

“Tinkiebell!” Akina called out, catching the actress’s attention.  “Your wings are beautiful!”

* * *

After wandering around asking employees for twenty minutes they finally managed to locate Mulan and Belle posing for pictures in a corner of the castle.  Tom slipped into the line for Belle and immediately began talking up two girls who were several years older than him. Dean and Castiel accompanied Akina through the line for Mulan, then watched as she cautiously approached the actress.  Castiel continued to watch for threats, since their party was the lowest priority by their demonic bodyguards’ standards. But Dean had turned into a completely sentimental father and was recording video of the encounter with his cell phone.

Akina walked up to Mulan, nervously rocked on her feet, then asked, “where’s your sword?”

“Well, sweetie,” Mulan smiled for a moment to give herself time to think of an answer.  “I’m not fighting the Huns right now. So I left my sword at home.”

Akina nodded at the reasonable answer, then held up her toy sword.  “You can have my sword. I have a sword at home. My uncle Dyl gave it to me.”  

Unbeknownst to the character actor, the five year old was referring to a functional bastard sword.  The fifth-birthday present had undoubtedly come from a place of fear for her safety, but Dylaniel had couched it within the context of having received a scimitar for his own fifth birthday.  Regardless of the precedent, Dean had insisted that the sword’s sheath stay tied on and it be mounted to the wall until she was older, but Akina was still very proud of it. 

“That’s very kind of you, but I think you should keep your sword,” Mulan smoothly declined the offer of the wooden toy.  “You never know when you might need to save the day.”

Akina hugged the sword to her chest, then hopped up and down happily at the suggestion that she might get to be a hero.

* * *

Ruby was standing in line for the Snow White ride with Anansi and Malek.  The exterior of the ride was plastic molded to appear to be folksy carved wood and rustic stonework.  She suspected that Malek had been attracted to the familiarity of stone walls, but Ruby had chosen the ride because it was at least a story she’d read as a Grimm Brother’s tale.

“Does Snow White control snow?” asked Anansi while they trudged slowly through the line.

“No, she was a princess or something.  I don’t think she had any powers,” Ruby answered.

“Why is she named Snow if she doesn’t make snow?”

“I think it’s cause her skin is white as snow.”

“Like Mary?” asked Malek.

“Mary…?”  Ruby tried to figure out who he was talking about.  “You mean Mary had a little lamb?”

“Yeah, was Mary white as snow too?” Anansi pressed the issue.

“The lamb was white as snow,”  Ruby corrected, then shrugged. “I mean, I guess in your book Mary’s white too.”

“Why is everybody white?”

“Colonialism,” she answered, then quickly changed the topic back to Snow White before the four year old children had anymore questions about colorism.  “But yeah, Snow White didn’t use any powers or magic.”

“What did she do?” Malek quietly asked while he held onto Ruby’s pant leg for comfort.

“Mostly cleaned and slept.”  Ruby tilted her head from side to side thoughtfully.  “A lot of the early Disneyland princesses mostly did chores and slept.”

“They sound boring,” complained Anansi.

“They are, but in Snow White there’s a witch and singing miners,” Ruby replied as she checked to make sure that Malek’s hat was secure.

Malek’s spikes and horns had been ground down, and his hair had grown out sufficiently to hide his horns with the help of a floppy hat.  Though the his skin was still covered in dark splotches that contrasted noticeably again his light brown skin. Luckily, Ruby had used some makeup to cover the red parts and make it less striking.  Unfortunately, the boy still drew a reasonable number of glances.

A man in line was candidly staring at Malek, though Ruby wasn’t concerned for the young prince’s safety.  Joseba had entered the line for the ride shortly after them and was within arm’s reach of the man. The Knight made eye contact with her, then gestured behind the man’s back, silently asking if the gawker should be killed.  She shook her head, then picked Malek up.

“He has a skin condition,” Ruby told man.  “You don’t have to act like he has two fucking heads.”

The man turned bright red, sputtered for a moment, then took his daughter’s hand and retreated back out of the queue.  Everyone else around them immediately avoided looking anywhere near Ruby or Malek, but Joseba smiled gratefully at her.

She hugged Malek and kissed his cheek.  “You’re the sweetest, handsome, little guy.”

“Thank you, Auntie Ruby,” Malek cooed.

“Who doesn’t take any shit?” she asked him in a voice clearly meant for a child.

“Me,” Malek answered while bashfully pointing to his stomach.

“Yup.  And what about you, Ani?”  Ruby ran her fingers through her son’s messy dark brown hair.

“Don’t take any shit,” Anansi agreed.

“That’s right.”

After five more minutes of waiting in line, they took their seats in the ride’s cart, but before they could get moving Malek grabbed the protective lap bar in front of them and pulled it toward them.  The cart groaned slightly. An employee at a control panel twenty feet away starting staring at his computer screen in confusion, then directed another employee towards their cart. Ruby wrapped her arm around him, pulling Malek closer to her and away from the bar as an employee came over.

“How did….”  The crew member scratched his head.  “Those bars aren’t timed to lower yet.  Did that just come down?”

“Yeah,” Ruby lied rather than having to explain how they broke an apparently automated piece of machinery.  “I don’t know what to tell you.”

The employee gestured to a coworker, who hit a button halting the ride, then turned to the queue of more than a hundred people.  “Sorry, but the ride is temporarily closed!”

Without waiting to be dragged into anymore drama, Ruby collected Malek and Anansi, then quickly made for the ride exit while whispering to the boys, “if you don’t talk about pulling down the bar, I’ll buy you a churro.”

“What’s a churro?” asked Anansi.

* * *

Sam found Ruby sitting on a bench with Anansi and Malek.  Both of the boys were eating the last few inches of a churro in a near-frenzy.

“Turns out kids love deep fried dough covered in cinnamon sugar.”  Ruby shrugged, then took a sip of some tropical looking drink adorned with a hot pink umbrella.  “Tag, you’re in.”

“Fine,” Sam replied while absentmindedly patting Kaylee’s back.  “You’re taking the girls to meet princesses.”

Ruby sat up more, ready to try talking her way out of the prospect of spending an hour or more listening to college-age actors pretending to be simplistic fictional characters.  She glanced back at the pair of four year old boys with inhuman powers who had just consumed sugar, then back at her three daughters. After giving Sam a quick peck on the cheek, Ruby took Kaylee’s hand, and started pushing the double stroller.

“Come on, ladies.  Let’s go find some badass women.”

* * *

Rather than making the sugar-fueled Anansi and Malek hold still in the line for a ride, Sam opted to try tiring them out with an hour-long walk all over the 85-acre park.  After taking a few odd turns, he stopped them by some shops to check a park map for a few second. When he turned around to let the boys know he was ready, he saw Anansi holding something behind his back.

“Ani, hands where I can see them,” he instructed his son.

Anansi held his hands out, but skirted Sam.

“Hold still.”  He looked over Anansi’s head and saw five churros hovering behind his back.  After quickly checking to make sure that no one was watching, he crouched down and grabbed them with his hand.  “Drop the churros, now. If you keep holding them, I’m going to take all of them away and you won’t get any of them.”

The boy released his telekinetic grip on the treats, then offered too late, “you can have one.”

“Where did you get these?”

“The little building boxes.”  Anansi pointed to one of the numerous snack carts scattered throughout the park.

“You’re supposed to ask before you take,” Sam warned.  Everyone hated it when Anansi had to wear his power-dampening wristbands, but until he was exercising proper discipline there wasn’t a better alternative.

“They have lots,” Anansi argued.  “I just want a few.”

“It doesn’t matter how many of something someone else has.  You can’t take things that don’t belong to you without asking.”  Sam held up the churros. “It’s time to ask.”

“Can I have one?”

“Can I please have one,” Sam corrected.

“Can I please have one?”

Sam considered trying to instill the lesson that taking without permission was wrong by denying the boy any reward, but they were surrounded by people and he really didn’t want to deal with a telekinetic four year old’s tantrum.  Excess sugar be damned.

“You’re going to share one with Mal.”

* * *

Maleficent wasn’t technically a princess, but Ruby felt fairly certain that Sam’s terms hadn’t been literal.  She’d taken their three daughters all over the park trying to locate the highly coveted princesses, but the lines were either too long for Kaylee’s curiosity-burdened patience or were too close to some plant life that the twins were likely to dabble with.  But just when all seemed lost, Ruby had found a woman who literally put the bad in badass—and the line wasn’t even that long.

Kaylee stared up at Maleficent and asked, “are you a witch?”

“No, child.  I am an evil fairy,” Maleficent replied in a tone that somehow toed the line between uncaring and attentive.  “If you want to meet a common witch, there are several of those lurking about.”

“My brother’s gonna be a witch,” Kaylee informed her.

“Then he would make a fine ally.”

“What do an evil fairy do?” Kaylee took a step closer and leaned to one side to see if she could look at Maleficent’s back.  “Do you have wings?”

“I can turn into a dragon with large black wings.”  Maleficent gestured toward the sky to allude to her size as a dragon.  “But I can’t do it here or else I would upset all the heroes.”

“My parents told me I can’t show my wings here.”  Kaylee replied, earning an unseen head wobble from Ruby acknowledging the rule.  “They’re black too.”

“Yes, this place is much too crowded for becoming a dragon or flapping your wings,” the actress innocently agreed.

“Are you a big dragon?”  Kaylee voice was almost skeptical.

“A very big dragon.”

Kaylee studied her for a few seconds, then nodded at some sort of decision.  She reached into her tiny frog-shaped backpack, pulling out a homemade friendship bracelet and held it out to Maleficent.  “Will you be on my team?”

“She’s got a dozen of them for handing out,” Ruby told the actress to assure her it wasn’t some unique or prized item.

“Why yes.  I accept.” Maleficent took the bracelet.

Kaylee hugged Maleficent’s legs, then took her mom’s hand and began leading Ruby away before a picture could even be taken.  “Come on, Mom. I need more team.”

* * *

After meeting her third character, Ruby suggested to Kaylee that they try going on another ride.  Without having Castiel, their encyclopedia of Disneyland trivia on hand, Ruby opted to just pick a ride in Fantasyland at random.  Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride had enough of a line to indicate popularity, but it wasn’t nearly as mind-bogglingly long as a big name like Peter Pan’s Flight.

She didn’t know anything about the story, but gleaned some guesses from the decoration throughout the line.  The characters were bipedal animals: a toad who was somehow a lawyer, a rat, a badger, and some weasels that certainly looked like antagonists.  The ride vehicles were shaped like miniature 1900’s cars. Ruby and Kaylee piled into a little red car and held Maya and Layla on their laps. Once the four of them were safely crammed into the car, the vehicle moved along its track.  The plot was a bit unclear, but it seemed to revolve around Mr. Toad drunk driving and dying in a car accident. The last few moments of the ride took the cars through a cartoonish depiction of Hell complete with the antagonist weasels as devils.

Thankful none of her daughters had been frightened by the ride, but Kaylee exited the car looking bewildered.  After getting the twins back into their stroller, Ruby knelt down in front of Kaylee and asked, “I’m sorry if that was confusing or weird.  I didn’t know they had rides like that here. Are you okay?”

“What happened?” she asked, cute little face scrunched up in confusion.  “Why was everything red?”

“That was supposed to be Hell.”

“That’s not Hell!” Kaylee squeaked indignantly.  “Where are the flowers? We aren’t rats!”

“Those were weasels, not rats,” Ruby corrected reflexively.

“We aren’t weasels.”

“This is some humans’ guess at what Hell is like.”  Ruby raised Kaylee’s hands to her lips and kissed them.  “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“They should go to Hell,” Kaylee huffed.

Ruby opened and closed her mouth, trying to decide how to respond.  At some point she’d have to explain that the phrase was considered an insult, but a discussion on the negative connotations of Hell would almost certainly exacerbate the unpleasantness.

“Yes, starlight.”  She tuck some hair behind her daughter’s ear.  “Those people should go to Hell.”

* * *

Tom was sitting cross legged on the ground next to the bench where the family was slowly gathering to regroup.  He was carefully reviewing a map of the park, but instead of marking attractions he wanted to visit, he was marking seemingly mundane areas.  After checking the sky for the direction of the wind and position of the sun, he made a few notes in the corner of his map.

“Alright, Tommy.  What’s brewing?” Ruby asked from her vantage point on the bench.

“I was thinking I could collect reagents for a site-to-site spell.”

“You know you aren’t old enough to be trying teleportation spells.”

“I just want to collect the pieces,” he assured his mom.  “I can wait ‘til I’m older.”

“What do you need?”

“Soil from the southern, northern, western, and eastmost points, and ore touched by all of the elements.”  The boy’s face pouted subtly at a thought. “But I don’t know where they have fire here.”

“I might be able to assist with that,” Castiel interjected.  “There is a gas-fueled torch in the Pele statute that ignites every fifteen minutes outside of the Enchanted Tiki Room.”

“There’s a shrine to Pele!”  Tom looked as though his heart might burst from joy.

“I’m not sure whether one might consider it a shrine, but there is an area dedicated to several Hawaiian deities,” the angel explained.

“Mom, can I go?”

Ruby looked at the park map that Tom had been marking up and noticed all the greeny around the Tiki Room.  

“That area looks kinda nature-themed,” she observed.

“The attraction is a musical show performed by birds, flowers, and tiki carvings,” Castiel warned.

“Singing birds and flowers?” Ruby said unenthusiastically.  “I’m volunteering someone else for that. I’ll stay with double-trouble.”  She tickled Layla and Maya’s tummies, then handed Tom her cell phone. “Call your dad and tell him to hurry up.  That singing stuff sounds up his alley.”

* * *

It took Sam almost ten minutes to redirect Anansi and Malek to the meetup location.  At one point he’d considered asking Joseba for a hand, but opted to not break Joseba’s cover.  Instead he struggled through while sensing a vaguely amused sensation radiating off of the Knight Captain.  When Sam finally reach the rest of the family, he insisted on having a few minutes to sit before any more.

“Any luck with the princesses?” Sam asked Ruby as he sat down on the bench beside her.  He picked up Maya from the stroller and handed her to Ruby while he quickly adjusted part of the stroller’s padding.

“The goodie-goodies all had long lines, but we found a few people.”  Ruby smiled, eyes twinkling with visible pride. “It was interesting.”

“Do I want to know?”  Sam pulled his gaze from where Dean was trying to stop Akina from wrestling Anansi and where Castiel was trying to convince Kaylee that attractions weren’t alternate planes of existence.

“Kaylee has enlisted Maleficent, the Evil Queen, Dr. Facilier, Captain Hook, and Ursula to join her team.  I don’t know what she’s recruiting them for, but she vetted each of them for competence before offering them the position.”

“I know she’s young, but…”  Sam felt silly even asking. “Did you check to make sure the bracelets aren’t magical?”

“Way ahead of you,” Ruby assured.  “They’re just boring old twine and plastic beads.”

“Has she been spending time with Crowley?”

“Some, but not enough to have her buying souls.”  Ruby played with one of the bracelets. “She might just be a natural born schemer.  You haven’t seen Kay work very much—“

“No, but I get the impression.”  Sam tilted his head at the potential similarity.  “Ani was stealing churros.”

“A charmer, a schemer, a thief, and two ecoterrorists.”  Ruby played with one of Maya’s dark brown ringlets of hair, then tapped the infant’s nose.  “Our kids are such interesting people.”

“That they are,” Sam agreed with the assessment.  He wrapped an arm around her, then leaned in for a kiss, but the moment was killed.

“Fucking hell,” Ruby groaned as she looked past Sam and the stroller.

When he turned to look back at Layla, who was still in the stroller, he spotted what was wrong… well, odd.  Layla was cooing as she reached her arms out toward about ten ducks that had walked over from a nearby decorative pond and sat down by the stroller.

“Layla, don’t summon the ducks,” Sam told the eight month old as Ruby hastily returned Maya to the other half of the stroller and began pushing it away from the pond in an attempt to lose the fowl entourage.  

When Sam glanced over at his brother, Dean shrugged and coolly commented, “kids.”

* * *

Per Tom’s request, Castiel turned himself invisible and incorporeal while they waited for the show in order to discreetly make use of the fire at the Enchanted Tiki Room.  While their resident angel was lurking about waiting for the gas torch to ignite, Dean and Sam bought treats for Tom, Kaylee, Akina, Anansi, and Malek. Luckily, there was a snack stand in the waiting area, though it only sold sugar-packed pineapple juice and pineapple soft-serve ice cream.  To avoid a riot, Kaylee and Akina were allowed to split a bowl of soft-serve, while Anansi and Malek were permitted to have some of Sam’s.

After an outdoor pre-show that included the lighting of the torch, they all went inside a building with a tropical motif.  Dozens of animatronic birds and flowers sat on perches and in baskets hanging from the ceiling. Eventually, the show would begin and they would sing several songs, but there were still a few minutes of waiting until the next performance was due to begin.  So the family took their seats in the back row and tried to finish off their treats.

“Baba, why aren’t the birdies flying?” Anansi asked Sam once the distraction of the soft-serve was gone.

“These birds just want to sit on their perches and sing for a while,” Sam answered.

“I can help them fly.”

“Please don’t help the birds.”  Sam moved his son to be sitting on his lap, then took Anansi’s hands in his to prevent the boy from reach toward the animatronic birds in some attempt to telekinetically influence them.  “We’re just going to sit here and enjoy the show, okay?”

“Okay.”

Sam glanced over at Dean, who was covertly taking a hit from his vaporizer.  The eldest Winchester grinned at being caught, then waved the small device at Sam in a silent offer.

“On duty, really?”

“I’m eating pineapple soft-serve and a tropical paradise is about to sing to me.”  Dean gestured around at the room with his plastic cup of soft-serve. “Anyway, I babysit like this just fine.”

“At home.”

“It’s a mild blend, my medicinal setup,”  Dean clarified in a serious tone. “You know I wouldn’t screw around with the kids.”  He left unsaid the fact that the kids were more exposed to danger than at home and the need for extra vigilance.

“Yeah, I know,” Sam assured.  “I just don’t want you shortchanging Ruby and me on childcare duties.”

“You’re the ones who decided to have five kids.”  Dean grinned with false smugness. “Meanwhile I opted for the manageable one kid.”

Akina turned to face Dean and asked, “Dad, can I have a sister?”

Dean didn’t react for several seconds before slowly turning to face Sam with an expression of stunned terror.  In return, Sam mouthed “you’re so fucked” to his brother.

“Um... princess, that’s a… that’s a big conversation and the show’s about to start.”  Dean pat her back, then pointed to some of the decorations to distract her before looking back at Sam and whispering, “help me.”

“If you trade me Akina for Ani and Mal for the rest of the afternoon, I’ll give you advice on the—”  Sam mouthed the word sex. “—talk.”

Dean pursed his lips while considering the offer.  “Deal.”

* * *

Before returning home they decided to do one last activity as a family.  The Mad Tea Party had been a favorite of both Sam and Dean’s from their respective trips in their teens and early twenties.  The ride involved sitting inside teacups large enough to hold four adults and rotating a wheel attached to a central column in order to make your teacup spin.  The faster the wheel was turned, the faster the teacup would spin. All the while the dozens of teacups would travel around a clearing under brightly colored lanterns as bizarre festive music played.  

Neither of them had to explain to Ruby that the unspoken game was to see who could spin their cup the fastest or nauseating their fellow riders, though Castiel was given a warning.  Despite fond memories of intoxicated teacup-offs, Dean and Sam both were quickly struck with the reality of doing the ride with children. There would probably have to be different levels of speed in order to accommodate the different age groups of the kids.

“I’ll hold the twins on a non-spinning cup,” Ruby volunteered.  “Once you’ve rode a Hell-bird, spinning around in a teacup doesn’t have the old wow factor.”

“Who’s taking Ani and Mal?” Sam asked while pulling Anansi off of a wall he’d started climbing.

“I can assist with them,” Castiel offered.

“If you can stop them from breaking the thing, I can take care of spinning it,” Dean added, hopeful of providing some degree of speed.

“The older kids can ride with me and we can go faster,” Sam suggested, earning a grin and thumbs up from Tom.

“How fast is faster?” Dean asked warily while holding his daughter on his hip.

“I’m not going to launch anyone from the cup, but…”  Sam lowered his voice and wiggled his fingers to allude to his powers.  “It’d be a shame to not take advantage of my skills.”

“That’s cheating,” Dean countered defensively.

“I’m just making up for my disability,” Sam replied as he pointed to the scars across his right forearm.  “Otherwise I can’t turn the wheel much at all.”

“You fu—“  Dean stopped himself from cursing around all the children.  “—cheater.”

Sam leaned in close to whisper in his brother’s ear, “have fun dealing with the little power-players while I’m blowing your teacup out of the water.”

“After this, Cas and Rube take the kids and then I’m gonna beat your ass at Astro Blasters,” countered Dean.

The gate confining the line was opened and they were allowed to get settled in their teacups.  Sam raised his right hand to be just over the central wheel. When the ride started, he began telekinetically rotating the wheel causing the teacup to spin.  He started off slow for the benefit of Tom, Kaylee, and Akina, but quickly began increasing the speed. Tom wrapped his arms around the two younger girls who began wobbling dizzily in their seats.  The three kids let out squeals of glee and laughter while trying to process the whirling colorful lanterns above them.

When the ride was stopping there was a groan of strained metal amidst the music and the cheers of dizzy riders.  As soon as the teacups were stopped, Dean staggered out of his and sat down on the ground. Anansi jumped out of the vehicle, tackling his uncle in a hug, while Malek meekly followed.  Ruby and Sam hurried over to them.

“Ani twirled it... and Mal grabbed the wheel to stop the spinning.”  Dean clutched the ground. “I think my life flashed before my eyes.”

“You weren’t at risk of death,” Castiel corrected while exiting the teacup, then he picked Dean up.

“Your service will be honored,” Ruby told Dean as she repositioned the twins.

“Come on, Ani,” Sam said as he peeled his son off Dean.  “Uncle Dean needs a few minutes to recover.”

“We went so fast!”  Anansi waved his arms with unbridled glee.  “Let’s go again!”

“Everything’s spinny,” Akina said as she and Kaylee clung to each other for stability while trying to walk.

“I like the lights,” Malek told Tom and pointed to the colorful lanterns before taking his cousin’s hand.

“We’ll tell your mom,” Tom suggested.  “Maybe she can put some in your bedroom?”

Malek smiled broadly at the thought.  “My room is gonna be pretty,” the four year old Prince of Hell exclaimed as he followed Dean, Castiel and his older cousins toward the exit.

“We broke two rides, created a plague of ducks, destroyed a small world, recruited a team of villains, and nearly killed Dean,” Ruby told Sam as he wrapped an arm around her.  She handed him a twin, then stood up on her toes to plant a kiss on his cheek. “This really is the happiest place on Earth.”


	21. Prompt: Ruby & Sam spending time with baby Kaylee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anonymous asked:  
> Hi hello I love ruby and I have a request for some ruby and kaylee in the “aftermath” verse, just ruby and her new baby when she comes back from killing lilith
> 
> Author notes:  
> Sorry this took so long to post. I started writing it, but I quickly found that it’s pretty hard writing a single person interacting with such a young baby (since they don’t do much at that age). About that time I received another fic request asking for some of Sam interacting with Kaylee in Aftermath too. So I decided to merge the requests in order to make more stuff happening (Sam and Ruby can play off each other when Kaylee would otherwise be an adorable potato). Then I also got a fic request for Sam’s reaction to finding out that Ruby was pregnant again. So that kinda fit in with the first year of fluff and their evolving sense of family. 
> 
> So to sum up: Sorry for taking so long to post this and sorry for combining fic requests. I just think that they make a nice little collection. And as always, I hope you enjoy it.

12/28/2009

“Are we at the camp?” Sam asked through a mixture of justifiable fatigue and pain killers.

It’d been almost a whole day since he’d had surgery on his right arm, and the majority of that time he’d been asleep.  The procedure to repair the cut muscles wasn’t particularly intrusive, although after his imprisonment and the fight he’d been left completely spent.  As soon as the logistics of teleportation were arranged by the others, he was moved to a free cabin with the rest of the coven and was deposited into a warm, plush bed.  He’d stirred a few times when Kaylee had started crying, but Ruby had promptly started nursing her or otherwise soothing the fussing baby in order to allow him to rest as much as needed.

“Yeah, we’ve got a spare cabin, all to ourselves.”  Ruby ran her fingers through his hair. “So take as long as you need.  We don’t have killing anymore Archdemons or Archangels on our calendar.”

He shifted slightly, comfortably immobilized between a pile of pillows that supported his injured arm, Kaylee dozing on his chest, and Ruby who was snuggled up on his left side.  His fingers ran up through Ruby’s hair from the nape until he’d cupped the back of her head. Pulling her closer to him he rested his cheek against the top of her head and breathed in her scent.  He stayed like that for a long while, relishing the calm as he watched their daughter sleep.

“So this is what it’s like to have no plans?” he said, breaking the silence.

“I didn’t say that.”  Ruby dragging her fingers along his bare torso.  “You start physical therapy in four days.”

He tried moving the fingers on his right hand, but they weren’t exactly cooperative and caused some pain in his forearm.

“Do you know how long the sessions are supposed to be?”

“Just an hour,” she offered, knowing perfectly well that leaving the camp and Kaylee was one of the last things he wanted to do.  “Then you can come straight back here.”

Kaylee fidgeted and let out a little huff as her limbs readjusted.  Sam and Ruby both watched her find a comfortable position and return to her perfectly content sleep.

“When we first got here, back while you were still out, Tom asked if he could stay with us,” Ruby broached the more serious yet timely conversation.  “I have a feeling I know the answer, but are you okay with that?”

It was more than just the boy staying with them for a bit.  This was a turning point in all of their lives. If Tom moved in with them it would undoubtedly solidify him eventually becoming an adopted son.  They both cared about him and he’d been very sweet towards Kaylee—not to mention that they knew that Kay had loved her older brother. Despite that, it was still the first step in a huge commitment…. But he felt ready, he was prepared to step up however he was needed for his growing family.

“Yeah.”  Sam nodded.  “I’m fine taking him in.  Do we have enough room?”

“Yeah, this is a three bedroom cabin.”  She glanced toward the rest of the cabin.  “But I haven’t really explored it much. You weren’t the only one who needed a day to recover in bed.”

“You more than earned some rest,” Sam agreed.

“But now you’ve got me curious what all there is in this place.”  Ruby reluctantly untangled her limbs from Sam’s, then went to go check on the relative sizes of the two other bedrooms in the cabin.  The smaller of the two seemed big enough to hold all the baby stuff that they’d need. For the last two weeks they’d managed with just a single room that they’d all shared.  Giving Kaylee a room dedicated just to herself seemed almost luxurious.

“Hey, um… Ruby,” Sam called from the bed where she’d left him.  “I think Kaylee’s hungry.”

“She isn’t crying—” she started replying, but stopped when she walked back into the bedroom. 

Kaylee was still sprawled across Sam’s bare chest and was making a valiant effort to latch onto his left nipple.  He moved his bandaged right arm around in a display of his inability to pick up the fragile infant with both hands.  Ruby’s mouth curled helplessly into a grin as she summoned a considerable amount of willpower in order to not laugh at him.

“A little help,” he said as his ears turned pink.

“One sec, I need to go get a camera,” she replied, but didn’t go to the effort of pretending to look for her smartphone.

“Please don’t tell Dean… or Kay,” Sam begged as he stuck a finger in Kaylee’s mouth, giving her something to suck as a stopgap measure.

“I get the feeling Kay would be just as embarrassed as you,” Ruby commented and she scooped up Kaylee.  “Maybe wear a shirt next time you let her lay on your chest?” 

He stared at her skeptically.  “You’re the one who put me in this bed in just my boxers… I hope”

“And I don’t regret that decision in the slightest.”  Ruby gently bounced Kaylee to buy a bit more time before she started crying.  “While I’m taking care of her lunch, are you hungry? I can make you something vaguely resembling food.”

“You can cook?”

“Resembling food,” she repeated, then raised an eyebrow at him.  “Do you know how to cook?”

Sam opened his mouth to offer some statement in his defense, but he hesitated.  With a little shrug he replied, “I think I’m going to start making a domestic learn-how-to-do list.”

“Smart move.  This is a strange new mission,” Ruby observed while placing Kaylee into a cloth wrap, then slipped the wrap onto her body.  After a minute or two of adjusting the wrap, Kaylee was positioned to be right at her breast. She pulled her breast out of her shirt and helped Kaylee latch on before looking back at Sam.  “A strange mission with very weird tools and skill sets.”

“Fewer projectiles though,” he pointed out.

“For now,” Ruby said as walked out to the kitchen in search of the means to feed more that just her suckling daughter.

The fridge had been fully stocked when she’d arrived, so she had almost too many options.  In the end she settled on making a salad because it was one of Sam’s go to meals on the road and it was just chopped up raw vegetables—How hard could it be?  As she cut up the variety of produce, she hummed a gentle version of [Boys Wanna Be Her](https://youtu.be/uG5z4_GEhp8). Every few seconds she’d glance at Kaylee who occasionally nodded off with a mouth full of nipple only to wake up and immediately resume drinking.

“You look more exhausted than your dad,” she told the infant.  After a moment’s reconsideration she switched into Dagbani and continued talking to her as she prepared the salad.  “Your ba gets a pass on account of all the shit he’s been through the last fews days. I’m sure you’ll hear all about it when you’re older, but let me tell you before anyone else tries to tell you their heroic tale: it was your mom who saved the day.  I mean, your ba was very brave too, and your auntie Kay, uncle Dyl—even your uncle Dean, but don’t tell him I ever—”

“Are you speaking…” Sam started to ask as he walked out of the bedroom in his pajama pants and a soft t-shirt that he’d somehow managed to get on with the use of only one hand.  

“Dagbani,” she helped reminded him of the name of the language while answering the question.  She was about to explain that Kay had told her that it’d been spoken in her home growing up, and that the thought of sharing her languages with her daughter had been a surprisingly meaningful to her.  But Sam spoke before she could explain.

“Good,” he said while taking a seat at the dining table to keep her company even if he wasn’t up for actually helping.

Ruby smiled to herself as she kept chopping the salad.  She spoke to Kaylee and translated for Sam’s benefit as she worked.   Occastionally she’d look up at Sam; he was just sitting there happily watching her work while interacting with their daughter.  After having a chance to be upright for a bit, he came over and hugged her from behind. He kissed Ruby’s neck, then softly pat Kaylee’s head.  The baby let go of Ruby’s nipple and let out an audible sigh before immediately falling asleep as they watched. A little milk dribbled down her chin.

“She’s graceful,” Ruby whispered.

“She takes after her mom.”

Ruby bumped into him with her butt, giving him a slight hip-check, before instructing, “use that still-working hand of yours and find something to put this salad in.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He started searching through the kitchen cabinets for the first time.  Every once in awhile he’d pull out something he was unfamiliar with and check to see if she had ever seen the mysterious objects.  While exploring, he opened the microwave to check its capacity.

“I’ve never had a microwave,” Ruby observed as she stared at the small appliance.

“You know how to use a microwave,” he replied only half paying attention while he grabbed a serving bowl from a high cabinet shelf.

“But I’ve never  _ had _ one,” she clarified. “The last time I stayed somewhere for more than a month was in the 1920’s.”

He placed the bowl down on counter, then stared at the microwave again with newfound interest.  “I’ve never had a microwave either. When I was at Stanford my roommates always brought that kind of stuff.  I just had a few bowls and utensils….” 

Sam looked around at the fully furnished cabin.  It was his. It was theirs. It would take some getting used to.  He exchanged an awkward glance with Ruby, but before either of them could find the words to express the oddity of the moment there was a soft knock on the front door.

“Come in,” Sam called out.

Belda opened the door, then walked in carrying a cake that appeared to contain chunks of tropical looking fruit.

“Welcome to the neighborhood,” she greeted them as she placed the platter on the dining table.  Ruby immediately stopped working on the salad and hurried over to pluck a few pieces of fruit from the cake.

“Thanks for the warm welcome,” Sam replied.  “We’re still trying to figure out what’s where and everything.”

“Well, if you find out that you’re missing something, we get supplies once a week and the next shipment should arrive in three days,” Belda told them.  “So you can just add whatever you need to the list Pascoe keeps.”

“The supplies come from?” Ruby asked.

“Our contact person is a woman named Shola, but they’re from Hell.  They just sort of arrive in the camp center.” Belda walked into the kitchen and began tossing the salad in the serving bowl for Ruby.  “Sadly they don’t offer babysitting, but I can help you out with that from time to time, if you’d like.”

“Thank you.”  Sam smiled warmly at her.  “I’m sure I’ll take you up on that, but for right now I’m being way too clingy.”

“You deserve to be a little clingy,” Ruby assured.

Belda started to pick up the salad bowl to take it to the table, but Sam took it from her.  She was in his cabin. She was a guest—They had a guest. With a bit of effort he started setting up a basic place setting for the three of them.  When they were all seated, he noticed Belda tilt her head to look into the smallest bedroom.

“What color are you painting the nursery?” the witch provided as small talk.

“What?” Sam asked, then looked into the little, empty room for signs that it needed repair.  He glanced at Ruby to see if she had an answer for the question he didn’t fully understand, but she seemed to be equally confused.

“Do you like this color?” Belda clarified.  “Cause if not we can order something else in the next shipment of supplies.”

He hadn’t even thought about what color it or any other room was.  The nursery was an odd seafoam green that wasn’t really offensive, but there wasn’t anything good to be said about it either.

It was their house, like the house itself, not just the objects inside it.  They could change things like the paint on the walls. He’d never been able to do that before.

“Lavender,” Sam suggested, earning a nod of approval from Ruby.

“And sage,” she added.

* * *

01/05/2010

There were plenty of coven members who were glad to lend a hand when it came to repainting the nursery, but Sam had insisted that he wanted to make an initial attempt.  His first two physical therapy sessions had brought negligible improvement, though he’d quickly gotten used to using his left hand more and was therefore able to decline assistance most of the time.

Ruby sat in the nursery’s rocking chair, soothing Kaylee to sleep as she watched his labor.  He’d never painted a room before and the unprofessional quality was made even worse by the fact that his dominant arm was largely nonfunctional.  But the slightly irregular effect was endearing and somehow fit the way their odd little cabin was coming together.

“Beautiful work, Rodin,” Ruby told him while eyeing the inconsistent brush strokes.

“Rodin was a sculptor,” Sam corrected her.

“I stand by my statement.”

He held out the paintbrush to her.  “Would you like to trade places?”

“No, I’m actually having a pretty good time where I am.”

He exhaled a small laugh at the thought of her enjoying such a quiet moment.  A few weeks ago he wouldn’t have believed that they’d be spending three consecutive days decorating a nursery.  He especially wouldn’t have expected for Ruby to be content with that sort of calm. Dropping the paintbrush back into the bucket, he turned to give her his full attention.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Sam asked.

“The colors?”  She furrowed her brow at the possibility of undoing all his work.

“With being here when it’s mundane,” he explained.  “You just… you’ve done so much exciting stuff for so long.  I want you to be happy.”

“It’s different,” she admitted.  “But I am happy. Anyway Kay’s mom found it exciting enough, so that’s probably a good sign.”

“Yeah, well her dad conquering Hell probably livened things up a bit,” Sam pointed out.

“If I get restless, then you’ll just have to go become the devil.”  Her voice was sweet and she batted her eyes in a homage to begging.

“That’s one way of spicing up a relationship.”

She chuckled, then tackled the issue a bit more seriously.  “After we get settled, I’m gonna go back to the coven’s old camp to collect the library and some other artifacts.  I want to rebuild, get back on the right side of the Maji so that I can get us more resources, get the coven stronger, and make sure all the kids are being brought up in the craft correctly.  The kids....” Her eyes flickered from the window facing the other cabins to the baby sleeping in her arms. “The kids have a future now. I want to make sure they don’t lose that again.”

Sam nodded in profound understanding as he watched her holding Kaylee.  All of them were getting a new beginning. He picked up the paintbrush, then asked, “can you bring her over for a second?”

Ruby carried their daughter over, then sat down on the floor next to him.  He took Kaylee’s right hand, then brushed some lavender paint onto it. Very gently, Sam pressed her hand onto a section of sage wall, transferring the tiny handprint.

“This is your room,” Sam spoke softly to the drowsy infant.  “You have a real room in a real house.”

“In a home.  You have a home,” Ruby corrected, then added, “we have a home.”

Sam cupped her Ruby’s cheek, smudging it slightly with lavender paint.  He kissed her deeply for several seconds before resting his forehead against hers and whispering, “I’ve had a home for over a year; it’s just been a person.”

She took his hand in hers, then guided it down to rest on their daughter’s chest.  “Well, now it’s people.”

* * *

04/02/2010

Ruby came home from a trip down to Hell to find Sam making dinner while Kaylee sat in her automated rocker.  She gave him a kiss, then picked up her four month old daughter. Sam was carefully checking a recipe for palak paneer and measuring out ingredients while listening to [Middle Distance Runner](https://youtu.be/jmJgdQwrG1Y).  Ruby started rocking and swaying to the mild music, taking Kaylee along for the ride.

“Someday you’re gonna learn how to move those little legs of yours and then you won’t need a dance partner,” Ruby informed Kaylee.

“I get the feeling she’ll still insist on dancing with you for a few more years,” Sam guessed as he sliced chunks of paneer.

“Look who’s talking.”  Ruby placed a hand behind her daughter’s neck to support her head, then dipped the infant before continuing the conversation.  “What do you want to bet she’ll make you jump through a literal hoop before she’s five?”

“Knowing Kay, I’m more concerned about figurative hoop-jumping.”

“Are you gonna be a little Crossroads demon?” Ruby cooed at her.  “Or are you gonna be a Maji like your mom?”

“Or unemployed like your dad?” Sam added.

“Have you ever really technically been employed?”

“I once tutored a kid while in undergrad,” he answered.

She held up Kaylee in all her footie-pajamaed glory.  “Your youngest pupil—speaking of pupils.” Ruby turned her daughter to face her, then blinked her eyes solid black and said, “boo!”

Kaylee started giggling while waving her arms enthusiastically.  Ruby turned her eyes back to normal, then did it again causing another adorable fit of joy.

“I don’t think this’ll ever get old,” Ruby told Sam.

“Just wait, Kay says we should expect her to start blinking black eyes right back at you at around one year old.”

Ruby turned her eyes black while making another giggle-producing silly face, then hugged Kaylee close and playfully rocked side-to-side.

“I can’t wait.”

* * *

Dinner was typical for the days when Ruby would go downstairs.  Tom happily told her all about what he’d learned under Sam and Belda’s complementary instruction.  Belda focused on foundational math, chemistry, reading, and magical theory. While Sam had taken to giving the boy and several other children lessons in history, natural sciences, and he also enjoyed reading them classic literature and poetry.  Pascoe would occasionally give Tom private lessons on spellcraft, which Sam also sat in on, when Ruby wasn’t around to help her young apprentice.

While enjoying her home-cooked meal, Ruby recounted a very redacted version of her ‘day’ in Hell.  She’d always leave out the parts that were likely to upset Tom. At some point when he was a bit older she’d inevitably explain her role in the great ecosystem of painful transformation.  For the moment he at least abstractly understood what Hell was and that was enough to get the gist of most stories across. She also wanted to share some of the details of her other activities with Sam, to give him another glimpse of the outside world—not that he was particularly inclined to go out into that mess when there was such a pleasant place for him to enjoy with his new family.  Nor was it a wise idea for him to go anywhere that he might be recognized by demons, angels, police, and who knew what else. 

After dinner, Ruby took Kaylee while Sam helped Tom start his last bit of studies before bedtime.  She gave the infant another twirl on the dancefloor before settling on their too-small couch for storytime.  Half the time she made up the tales—it didn’t really matter whether the plot made any sense since the main goal was to simply expose Kaylee to a broad vocabulary.  But fairly often after a long day, when her imagination had failed her, she’d start telling stories from real life. And after the day that she’d had, the story of how her castemate Borbdyn was accidently made into a Visedemon seemed as good as anything else.

“—Then an Arbris demon named Kulnix asked Borbdyn whether she’d visited the Lower Pits den,” Ruby was saying as Sam finally walked back into the living room after taking care of Tom.

He stopped mid-step, furrowed his brow and tilted his head at the odd discovery, but he didn’t comment on the actual plot.  After double checking the sweet, innocent smile on his daughter’s face he shrugged, resigned to the effectiveness of the story, then sat down next to Ruby.

“How often do you tell her Abyssal bedtime stories?” he asked her in a nonjudgmental voice.

“All the time.”  Ruby shrugged. “She’s more demon than human.”

“Not complaining,” Sam said in his defense.  “I just didn’t know that there were Abyssal stories that were… uh, age appropriate.”

“At four months old, you don’t have any long term memory of these words you don’t know, do you?”  Ruby cooed to the infant. “I could tell you about the time your ba and I killed like five demons, then had sex in car before we even cleaned up all the blood—“  

Sam hastily glanced down the hall to make sure that Tom’s bedroom door was closed as Kaylee giggled, interrupting Ruby’s recounting of some Friday night from over a year earlier.  Their daughter’s lighthearted laughter made Sam relax a bit more and distracted Ruby by inspiring her to tickle a pair of tiny, vulnerable feet.

“Point taken,” he acknowledged, then added, “but no sex stories after she learns her first word.”

“How hard do you think I’d have to work to get her first word to be sex?” Ruby smirked.

* * *

06/08/2010

Sam was prone on the living room floor watching his daughter intently.  From about a foot away Kaylee stared back at him with her big, dark brown eyes.  She wriggled uncertainly on her stomach and arms for several minutes but couldn’t figure out how to propel herself forward.

“You’ve got to crawl to move forward,” Sam informed the six month old.  “Like this.”

Sam pushed himself up onto his hand and knees in Kaylee’s field of view, then started crawling around.  She studied him with silent fascination before rocking back and forth in some approximation that didn’t involve lifting her limbs off the ground.

“Did you drop something?” Ruby asked as she walked in the door with their portion of the latest shipment’s groceries.

“No, I’m just trying to teach her how to crawl.”

Ruby placed the basket full of food on the kitchen counter, then sat down on Sam’s back as if he was a mount.  Sam tilted his head towards their daughter’s adorably furrowed brow.

“I think you’re confusing her,” he told Ruby, but did attempt to buck her off.

“Someday you’ll get piggyback rides from your ba,” she told the befuddled infant.  “And he can use telekinesis, so they’re probably gonna be pretty awesome.”

“No pressure.”

“You’re a natural,” Ruby said encouragingly before climbing off of him and getting down on her own hands and knees.  She smiled at Kaylee, then said, “alright, now we’re both crawling. See, it’s not so hard.”

Ruby had only been crawling around on the floor in front of Sam for about twenty seconds when she spotted him look at her ass.  She stopped right in front of him, gave a little teasing shake, then turned around and pulled him into a playful kiss. He held her, but as he slowly lowered her to the floor while they kissed, he’d unconsciously moved to be on top of her.  Her legs wrapped around his waist and their crotchs were tauntingly close together.

Sam broke the kiss with a sexually-frustrated groan, then checked to confirm that Kaylee was just sitting a few feet away candidly watching them.  “I think we’re destroying whatever crawling knowledge she had.”

“Avert your eyes, starlight.  Your dad and I are couple-wrestling.”

He huffed a laugh.  “Yeah, that’s not happening right now.”

Ruby reached down and rubbed his dick through his pants.  “Maybe we could get Belda to babysit more often, for a little bit right after I get home from work?”

After considering his current bargaining power with Belda he suggested, “she’d probably be fine with an hour here or there.”

“Two hours,” Ruby upped the ante, earning a grin and a nod of acknowledgment.

“I’ll see what I can negotiate.”

* * *

11/14/2010

Sam was lying on the couch reading Fear & Trembling aloud while the 11-month old Kaylee snuggled on his chest.  She reached up and pet his scruffy chin.

“Ba.”  Kaylee’s voice was a soft little squeak.  She only knew a few words, but they seemed meticulously designed to elicit pampering from anyone within earshot.

“What can I do for you, Kaylee?”

She grabbed at his face, then said, “--iss.”

He shifted slightly, then gave her a kiss.  She giggled before resuming groping his two-day old whiskers.

Ruby came out of their bedroom and glanced around for a moment before asking, “is Tom still over at movie night?”

“Yeah, they’re watching The Lord of the Rings.”  Sam checked his watch. “So it’ll probably be another hour or more.”

“Cool,” she said uncharacteristically in a slightly anxious tell as she strolled around the room.  He sat up when she stopped right in front of him. “How’s teeny toddler time?”

“Good,” he responded warily.  “Why?”

“I was just wondering how you’d feel about another?”

“Another what?”

She lifted her shirt up a few inches to show him the fact that she couldn’t button her pants. “Another slightly demonic bundle of joy.”

He stared at her, completely dumbfounded for a long while.  “You’re pregnant?”

“It feels like last time and half my pants don’t fit anymore.”  She placed his hand on her abdomen. “We can go get an ultrasound.  I’d rather do that than ask Morrison to confirm it.”

Kaylee stood up on her dad’s lap, then reached out and touched Ruby’s belly, mimicking him.  He felt like he’d been sucker punched right in his heart. Ruby reached down and ran her fingers through their daughter’s soft brown hair, then looked at Sam with a verklempt wavering smile. “I’m not sure if hormones are in play, but I think my ovaries just exploded from that cuteness.”

Sam used telekinesis to float over a few toys from across the room, dropping them onto the area rug in front of the couch.  He put Kaylee down on the floor to entertain herself for a few minutes by playing with her toys. With a bit more space cleared on the couch, he gestured for Ruby to join him.  They needed to talk.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” she said as she took his hand.

“Thinking might be a little too much for me right now,” he admitted.

“Then how’re you feeling?”

They sat in silence for several seconds watching their daughter playing with a plush dragon that Bobby had given her during his last visit.  Sam loved watching her grow, learn, and explore this big weird world. He loved being a dad. The thought of having another baby made him hopeful and eager—and daunted, definitely daunted, but not so much that he’d let that stop him.  Yet there was another feeling gnawing at him.

“Scared.”

“Is it the idea of taking care of three kids?” she asked.  “Cause I could be home more.”

“It’s not that,” Sam assured.  He pursed his lips at his own fear before daring to voice it.  “What if Heaven calls this a violation?”

The main condition placed on his ability to live in peace was that he not dabble in the politics of Hell.  Much to the chagrin of Kay, Crowley, and everyone else who liked Sam, there hadn’t been a clear definition of dabbling.  Heaven had left itself some wiggle room for discretion, contingent upon some ability for Hell to argue on his behalf before anything drastic punishment was inflicted on him for a perceived violation.  Of course that was all in theory. Who was he to guess at what Heaven might find so threatening as to act without some sort of due process.

“You aren’t playing politics,” she argued.  “This is our family, in our home. They don’t get a say in that.”

“We’d be changing the playing field.”  He leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling because he couldn’t stand to look at either of Ruby or Kaylee while making his next point.  “Kay’s younger siblings were killed for what they were.”

Ruby scooted closer to him, then turned his face to her.  “Our kids aren’t princes and princesses of Hell. It’s not that same.”

“They’re still born demons.”  With a hint of quiet shame he added, “they’re still  _ his _ vessels.”

“Lucifer isn’t in play.”  Her voice with comforting yet firm.  “Times change. People evolve. Species evolve.  We aren’t at war with Heaven. They can deal.”

“Is it fair to bring another kid into the world when we don’t know….”  He couldn’t begin to articulate all the what-ifs.

“We take risks for the things that are important to us.  We do it for each other and the kids. Our family is pretty fucking weird, but we’re happy and I don’t mind the risks we take in exchange for that.”  She looked him in the eyes with a seriousness and sincerity that cleared away some of the anxious haze. “Politics aside, do you want to have another kid?”

He let out a long breath, then answered, “yeah, I do.”

Ruby climbed onto his lap, straddling him, then leaned in for a kiss.  He embraced her, clinging to her in the dizzying collection of emotions finally hitting him full force.  A tear of something between bliss and nerves trickled down his cheek before he laughed breaking their kiss.  She caressed his cheek, then rested her forehead against his and whispered, “I want that too.”


	22. Prompt: Mom!Ruby - "Mommy & Daddy Time" Interrupted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've been getting a reasonable number of requests on Tumblr for Mom!Ruby fillets, so I'm gonna post them here as I do them.

Ruby was on her hands and knees on their queen-sized bed.  Sam was kneeling just behind her, gripping her hips, hard dick deep inside her, giving her his all.  Occasionally, she’d have to reach up to grab the headboard for some more leverage. After shifting a bit, he hit her sweet spot, eliciting a quiet moan.

“Right there,” she told him, panting between thrusts.  “Give it to me right there.”

She could feel him getting harder.  He had just the right angle on her, rubbing her in all the right ways.  She hummed softly as she came, trying not to make too much noise for fear of waking the kids.  His fingers tightened on her as he neared his breaking point.

“What are you doing?” said a little voice behind them.

Before she could even process what was going on, the bedding telekinetically flew up, covering their naked bodies.  Sam hastily pulled out of her with a pained grunt, then tried to use a pillow to cover the bulge that his erection had briefly created in the sheets.  Ruby collapsed as her overworked limbs gave out under her. Rolling over, she saw the source of the question.

Kaylee was standing at the foot of their bed.  The almost-four-year old was in her purple, flannel pajamas, holding her dragon plushie while sleepily rubbing her eyes.  Evidently, she was having trouble sleeping and in their excitement they’d forgotten to lock the door.

“What were you doing?” she asked again.

Ruby looked over at Sam for his reaction.  He was completely flushed, but it was hard to say if that was from nearly an hour of passionate sex or embarrassment.  His face was painted with the nervous smile he always used when trying to figure out how to finesse a delicate topic for the kids.

“Playing,” Ruby answered.

“What are you playing?”

“That I was a kitty,” she suggested as a way of explaining her being on all fours, then tried to come up with some justification for Sam’s position.  “And Daddy was trying to hold me back so I couldn’t crawl around.”

He gave Ruby a sidelong glance as they both waited to see if that would fly.

“What did you give Mommy?” Kaylee asked her dad.

“What?”

“Mommy said you give her something.”

“A back rub,” Sam offered after a short, panicked pause.  “I was giving Mommy a back rub while we were playing.”

“Oh.”  Kaylee nodded for a moment at the apparently acceptable answers, then started approaching the bed.  “Can I sleep in your bed?”

“Uh….”  Ruby said as she noticed that Sam was still covering his crotch with his pillow.  The poor guy had been stopped just before finishing and was visibly uncomfortable.  “Of course you can, but how about the two of us go get a little warm milk to help you sleep.”  She leaned over and gave Sam a kiss on the cheek as cover for whispering, “Go sneak into the shower while I distract her.”

“My hero,” Sam replied quietly. 

Ruby slipped on one of Sam’s t-shirts to act as a small nightgown, then took Kaylee’s hand and led her to the kitchen.  She poured her daughter a little glass of milk and warmed it slightly in the microwave. After taking care of Kaylee, she got herself a tall glass of water— she was parched after so much vigorous activity.

She spotted Sam tiptoeing into the bathroom, naked except for a towel he was using to hide his dick.  After glancing down to make sure Kaylee was still focused on her glass of milk, Ruby mimed brushing teeth to him.  He grinned a bit at the realization that he still smelled and tasted like her pussy, then silently blew a kiss to her before closing the door behind him.

Ruby took a moment to beam down at their smart, sweet daughter, who always managed to keep them on their toes— figuratively and literally.  Kaylee was looking particularly adorable, holding her glass of milk with both hands and taking little sips. Profoundly content, Ruby started drinking her water, but promptly spat it out in surprise when Kaylee looked up at her and asked, “why was Daddy’s weewee in you?”


End file.
